Zynga Under Fire For Mafia Wars Street Ads

In continuing with its superb marketing skills, FarmVille developer Zynga is being investigated over Mafia Wars: Las Vegas advertising used in the streets of San Francisco. The game, an off-shoot of the Mafia Wars brand, was advertised with sidewalk stickers of $25,000 bills and fake broken windows on cars, all with a URL to the game’s website.

The Deputy City Atornney Alex Tse has taken issue which the advertising which he called “documented acts of sidewalk vandalism” and said that he “intends to pursue every available cause of action aggressively against Zynga for these illegal marketing tactics.”

Tse also asked Zynga to “provide the City full information regarding the nature and extent of the marketing campaign affecting the public way in the City, identify all parties other than Zynga responsible for this campaign, and provide the City with a proposal to fully resolve the issue.”

Certainly strong language from the official who obviously doesn’t appreciate his city having ads for another crappy social game stuck all over it. Other cities have also been subjected to the campaign which included blowing up a truck in the Nevada desert with rapper Snoop Dog. ‘Cause they’re so gangsta. Idiots.

Via: Gamasutra