Homefront Promotional Stunt Results in 7k Fine, Seriously Cutting into Profits

So remember back in March, when someone thought it would be a really good idea to release 10,000 balloons in the San Francisco area as part of a promotional stunt for Homefront?  Sure you do. There was  a lot of wacky marketing stuff going on at the time. People were fake-protesting Dante's Inferno, trucks of free food were suddenly the thing to do (COOL!) and THQ's marketing company decided to stage a fake North Korean-esque rally which reached its crescendo with the above mentioned ballooning of the city.

The city in the crosshairs of the ballooning, however, was less than impressed when instead of flying away never to be seen from again -like marketing campaign TrashTalkFCM anticipated- the majority of them fell into the San Francisco bay. And if you know anything about California it's that they take their environmental regulations seriously.

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board has now levied a $7,000 fine on TrashTalkFCM (which, may I add, is the most terrible name for a marketing company I've ever heard), and they now have 30 days to pay up.

Lesson learned. Interesting maketing is good (especially when it involves free food). Destroying the environment to do it is not.

[Source: 1up]