A guerilla-marketing stunt pulled off by Zynga, meant to attract people to a drawing that would have resulted in a cash prize of $25,000 for the winner, has drawn criticism from the city of San Francisco.
The problem started when Zynga glued dozens of fake $25,000 bills to the ground at five separate locations around the city. The bills included an address of the Mafia Wars Las Vegas website.
The city had to bring in steam cleaners to get rid of the bills. Costs included clean up and administration on taxpayers. This payment has attorney Dennis Herrera angry, so much so that he sent a letter to Zynga, threatening a lawsuit [thanks SFGate]. The office is demanding all of the information about the marketing campaign, including “emails, work orders, scope of work, contracts, marketing plans or other records – that show when and where the graffiti in San Francisco was placed, and by whom.” Herrera is insisting that he is looking for more than mere cash reparations.
There's no word from Zynga as to what they plan to do about the threat of legal action, but given the immense amount of money they are worth, paying for the cleanup shouldn’t be a problem.
