The release of thousands of red balloons to publicize a videogame earlier this year has resulted in a fine being levied against the marketing company responsible.
The stunt took place in San Francisco during this year's Game Developers Conference in March and was meant to publicize the release of THQ's Homefront on March 15. The game centers around a North Korean invasion of the United States. 10,000 red balloons were released as part of a staged protest meant to "simulate a method used by South Korea to send messages of hope to the North," according to a statement THQ issued at the time. The balloons contained a message about pre-ordering the game at GameStop, which claimed it was unaware of the stunt until after it happened.
TrashTalkFCM, the marketing company behind the campaign, had expected the balloons to rise high enough into the air that they would disintegrate, according to the San Francisco Appeal. The weather didn't cooperate, however, and hundreds of the balloons ended up in the San Francisco Bay. THQ claimed at the time the balloons "were made from a 100% organic product and are 100% biodegradable" and a clean-up crew was hired to remove any that had fallen into the Bay.
The Appeal now reports the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board has fined TrashTalkFCM $7,000, which it has 30 days to pay. This is the result of a settlement between the two; the fine itself was possibly less than it otherwise would have been due to TrashTalkFCM assuming responsibility and cooperating with the clean-up.
Following the stunt, THQ seemed to get the message that doing something quite so radical wasn't a wise idea. Unfortunately things didn't get a whole lot better for Homefront as the much-hyped shooter was not received well by critics, possibly causing a drop in the publisher's stock price. Its developer, Kaos Studios, was shut down in June and a sequel will be handled a different company.
We're guessing the marketing campaign will be, too.
[Images courtesy of SFGate.com.]
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