Mercs 2 gas giveaway causes 'chaos' in London

by Alexander Sliwinski on Sep 5th 2008 10:50AM

While a similar publicity stunt in LA went off with relatively little drama, it appears the Mercenaries 2 petrol giveaway in London was "irresponsible and dangerous," according to local residents. The BBC reports that traffic was gridlocked as drivers waited to get their £40-worth ($70) of gratis gas. The promotion started at 6:30AM and ran until police apparently shut it down.

Local residents were quite upset about the traffic and honking the stunt caused in their neighborhood. Lynne Featherstone, MP for the district, stated that while a lucky few got free gas, "hundreds of residents have faced misery." She's demanding an apology. We're sure that EA is real sorry about all the free publicity and we're positive those people with tanks full of free gas are even more sympathetic.

[Thanks to all who sent this in.]

Source

Tags: A2M, EA, Electronic-Arts, gas, london, Mercenaries, Mercenaries-2, Mercenaries-2-World-In-Flames, Microsoft, Pandemic, Pandemic-Studios, petrol, publicity-stunt, sandbox, third-person-shooter, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (49)

The hundreds of people who faced misery are probably just the guys who didn't get to the pump in time.

Well it seems Teh Waaaambulances didn't have problems with the traffic.

What a gas!

/got nothin'

Jumpin' Jack Flash it's a gas gas gas

Ok I have as little as you.

Whenever someone gets a perk in life there has to be people to bitch and moan about it.

That's the way it is.

Have another Merc 2 promotion and blow up the wankers!

Miserable assbags.

I'd have welcomed that stunt with open arms!

So, it's now illegal to do something nice, just because some people are greedy and cause problems for others?

It's not as if the sponsers told people to block up the traffic.

The only way EA "could" be held accountable is if the promotion wasn't conducted in civility -- i.e., if the gas station or EA hosting the promotion didn't provide any kind of traffic re-routing or possible police watch to ensure the event is held peacefully, *then* perhaps it could be a problem.

But come on... it's free gas. The moment that station's tank runs dry or the limited time offer ends, people that got there late will bitch and moan.

Who in thier right mind would complain about free gas, lol, its obvious its the locals and people who didn't get any, could you imagine being in that traffic for ages, finally getting to the pumps and being told "Sorry mate, its causing a problem, no more", I'd be cursing as well, lmao

MP = Member of Parliament not Military Police in this case in case anyone thought the army were getting in on the action

OH NO THEY DIDN'T! >:O!!

Thank God you went there first.

Suka tried to play me... Nice! I like it!

Not everyone in London has cars so having to endure the noise would be enough to annoy me

It's a British story, so it's not gas, it's petrol.

Petrol makes more sense, gasoline isn't even a gas. mind you its not really pretroleum either.

hmm,,, I'll call it car juice. problem solved.

A ella le gusta la gasolina.
Dale mas gasolina.

That song will haunt me until the end of my days.

There was drama here because it costs the equivalent of $18,541 to fill a tank here these days.

So you are saying that the problem was they didn't give the people enough free gas. Well hell, how dare they!?

Amazing.

Dude, you are such a LIAR!
18,541.00 dollars = 10,508.69 pounds conversion rates online dumb a$$. At least make your lies somewhere within the realm of possibility idiot.

Its called exaggeration 'idiot', check it up on www.dictionary.com

2. The act of exaggerating; the act of doing or representing in an excessive manner; a going beyond the bounds of truth reason, or justice.
And this is different from a lie how? Moron!

@TheNoid

Are you trying to be humorous or are you serious? You come off as plain crazy either way.

Yeah, that guy exaggerates aaall day. I bet he tells millions of lies when he's not posting trillions of incorrect facts on over 9000 forums.

Oh and "tanks full of free gas"?

£40 buys you about a thimbleful of petrol.

Don't excagerate, it's at least a cup.

Even if it was only a drop of "petrol", it's still a seventy dollar value for FREE!!! You english people are stupid. Who the hell complains about getting $70 worth of free anything? An a$$-hole that's who.

No thenoid, that comment was stupid, take into account the situation we are in, then take into account the location of where they decided to do this promotion during peak times.

In fact, why am I telling you this, its pointless, its not like you'll understand any of it, stick with your ignorance is bliss notion, thats the better option.

I know, I was just being a dick. I'm allowed to do that right?

Shush little boy, go ask your "mom" for a cheeseburger.

Yeah, you are being a dick, glad you understand that, just based on that comment I can tell you've never been here, why not do what I do, visit the country before making stupid ass comments.

Why don't you just blow up someone's car and pick up the gas tank that's on the ground? That's worth like 25 gallons or something! Enough for a Transit pickup, at least...

That's my plan, it's only 20 for a transit.

Indeed. Afterwards they should stop on the way back to the PMC to loot someone else's munitions...no sense in paying for it when a little petrol allows you to steal it. :-)

damn English people and their tea and strumpets

That's "crumpets." If the Brits had more strumpets, they'd be a bit more laid back.

Welcome to England: The Nanny State

Hehe, you Limeys are hilarious.

Well that was bound to happen wasn't it! Gas doesn't go round free these days, and with it hitting record high and our economic industry crashing down, the slight murmur of free gas is enough to create nationwide chaos, I bet every tom, dick and harry from far and near went down there to get thier car filled.

Personally, while a great and generous offer it may be, it was kinda stupid, not carefully thought about and there you have it, chaos. Its bad enough with narrow roads, they choose a quiet tight area to do this rather then a place with more space like say a motorway stop off point. Have a bite to eat, then get free fuel.

Yes the reason why it was irresponsible and dangerous in north London is because there isn't a six-lane road in London. It's all very well on a wide, straight, Los Angeles road but on a London street it's just asking for trouble.

I'm sure it's nice getting free petrol but if you then can't get back into your drive then the organisers of that event have not thought things through.

Unfortunatly some of those individuals that have never ventured outside of thier state or country for that matter won't understand the concept of narrow roads. Me just being in Orlando and Miami on holiday demonstrates why they are thinking like that, roads are WIDE in America, a vast contrast to the widest roads in England let alone London.

Not a single six lane road? In america, we have 8-20 lane roads, and all of the cars are hummers, and have m4's strapped to the backs.
Woo!

Yeah? Well try driving a mobile home down our streets and see if you don't cause chaos, lol. First time I was old enough to really understand what I was seeing, I was frightened by the size of Orlando lorries, they could crush ours, lol

I bet if they drove on the other side of the road like us it wouldnt have been a problem. HI YO!!

I live in the Baton Rouge area. Thanks to Hurricane Gustave we haven't had power since Monday, but thankfully it finally came up today. There hasn't been easily available gas the entire week. You have to wait in line for HOURS just to fill up and pay for it. Those fucking whiners need to shut the fuck up and stop complaining. They don't know what real problems are.

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Mercs 2 gas giveaway causes 'chaos' in London

Reader Comments (49)

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