GTA V Launch Gimmick Goes Sideways When Heavily Armed Cops Show Up

Failures

from the blurring-the-lines dept

Thu, Sep 19th 2013 7:28pm — Timothy Geigner

It's incredibly easy to do sales/launch promotions horribly wrong. My favorite example is still when Nestle thought that putting tracking devices in their candy wrappers and then hunting people down to give them crap was a good idea. Those with less in the department of good intentions can take things from funny to creepy, such as a pizzeria trading free pie for boob-flash-ery. The point is that you have to make sure you cover all your bases and don't do anything stupid, otherwise you can expect someone to game the system, mock a flaw, take your promotion the wrong way, or send the cops to shoot you. Wait, what?

Must have been a Dunkin Donuts promotion, huh? Hey-ohhhh!
Image source: CC BY 2.0

No, it wasn't pastries involved in this raid, it was video games. More specifically, Grand Theft Auto 5, because of course it was. In any case, apparently a retailer in France thought it would be a fun stunt to have their staff dressed up like criminals, thugs, and gang-bangers for the game's launch. The costumes, of course, required replica handguns. Humor, of course, required that passersby immediately call the cops, which resulted in 15 officers descending on the store and scaring the hell out of everyone.

Apparently the retailer forgot the key step of informing local authorities that they were going to be brandishing fake weapons while committing public commerce. You kind of can't do that, unless you want your business on display in all the wrong ways.

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Filed Under: france, gta v, police, publicity

18 Comments

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Internet Zen Master (profile), 19 Sep 2013 @ 7:39pm

How much does anyone want to bet
That the talking heads on cable news are going to try and hold this up as proof of video games being a corrupting influence on children?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 7:47pm

And here I thought this might be about the fake crack stunt I heard about.
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slick8086, 19 Sep 2013 @ 8:34pm

They got 5 stars pretty quick, they need to find a spray shop asap!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 9:06pm

turndowntheheat
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 9:17pm

Stupid is as stupid does.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 11:27pm

Re:
How original.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 12:43am

I love things when they go wrong, it teaches us all what to do and how to do it.

Yes some are creepy, but how would you be 100% sure if you didn't try it out? also there is the forth dimension, things are time relative meaning going to Comic Con and seeing a lot of elfs brandishing swords could bring the inquisition to your doors in other times, today not so much.

When there is a time that people don't kill each other with guns anymore(maybe they use other stuff) this would probably be a no brainer and fun way, in todays world, you have to notify authorities, an inconvenience, but one that I would endure for the sake of safety.

Still a fun, if not for any other reason just to get some laughs out of the people who forgot or where not aware of all the possibilities.
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Wig, 20 Sep 2013 @ 1:04am

"Publicity stunt makes headlines, product name clearly mentioned"...

I'd say: Mission accomplished
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 1:13am

doh
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 4:01am

what would be a real pisser is, if the store actually did everything right including informing the authorities, but then a gang of criminals did really rob the store, using less than fake hand guns!
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 5:41am

Well in all fairness the flashing for pizza was an pretty good idea. I flashed my man-boobs and they gave me a pizza as long as I agreed to never do that again.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 6:44am

gta iv
At one point i was ranked in the top two hundred, worldwide. That acomplishment required substantial skill and time. What did i get for it? The satisfaction of saying: "how proud i am to be a frenchman when i behold the triumpal column!"
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crade (profile), 20 Sep 2013 @ 7:31am

Re:
Yep.. Most likely intentional, but even if it wasn't it would just be a bonus not a mistake.
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Adrian, 20 Sep 2013 @ 8:13am

At least it shows they're into the games and up for having some fun. This would make me want to buy from them if I lived nearby.
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btr1701 (profile), 20 Sep 2013 @ 9:05am

Person of Interest
Something similar happened in NYC this week, except involving the TV show PERSON OF INTEREST:

http://www.tmz.com/2013/09/18/person-of-interest-tv-show-shut-down-new-york-city-guns/
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Ninja (profile), 20 Sep 2013 @ 9:38am

Now the question is, how many times have we seen several criminals properly dressed with heavy equipment storming into game stores while people were happily asking them for information on games and the likes. When you live in a society driven by fear that's what you get. Still, they could put a warn that it was just a joke for the easily scared ones.
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Michael, 20 Sep 2013 @ 10:17am

I think it is reasonable that someone would think these video game store employees were raving lunatics trying to hurt people.

Haven't you heard all of the moral panic lately about video games causing these events? Clearly, it is prudent to assume that a number of heavily armed men and women in a video game store have racked up enough time playing first-person shooters to be of major concern.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2013 @ 1:05pm

They should of had a shoot out. Imagine the publicity this would have gotten then!
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