To promote Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), Electronic Arts held a free gas giveaway in North London, resulting in a horrible traffic jam in the area. It's either the best promotional stunt we've seen in a while, or the worst. I think it would depend on whether you got the free gas or not.

EA was giving out GBP 20,000 (US$ 35k) worth of gas away. With gas prices tolling pretty high these days, it wasn't surprising that a lot of cars lined up to take advantage of it. In fact, so many lined up that only GBP 11,000 (US$ 19k) worth of gas was given away - the event was cut short due to the traffic jams it was causing.

In the end, only a lucky few got free gas, while everyone else wasted their own from waiting for the traffic nightmare to clear up. The general sentiment among residents of the area hated the event (cause they didn't get free gas?), but some of those who actually lined up for the gas now wanted to buy the game.

If they were aiming for media attention, I'd say the event was pretty successful. They even got into BBC. Here's the news report:

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