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EA Gives Gas, Parliament Gets Gassed

EA's "Mercs for Oil" program encounters a hitch or two in North London.

Would you accept free gas from these men?
Would you accept free gas from these men?
Sounds like the Mercenaries 2 "let's take over a gas station and give away free gas" stunt that went down without a hitch in Los Angeles last week didn't garner the same enthusiasm when duplicated over in Great Britain.

GamePolitics has the story from the UK's Telegraph, which states that £20,000 of "petrol" was scheduled to be given away for free. But the bobbies stepped in, shouted "what's all this, then" to anyone within earshot, and shut it down early, with only around half of the free gas going out.

Here in the States, the Los Angeles giveaway sounds like it went down as planned. EA took the opportunity to get people dressed up as the three mercs from the game and they shot a bunch of silly-ass video. There are a handful of fake news reports up on break.com, but here's my favorite.

  


The lesson here, obviously, is don't let your dress-up talent improv answers to questions. Totally shatters the whole illusion. Still, it's hard to argue with free gas, and for once, it's a game launch promotional tie-in that actually makes sense in the context of the game it's promoting.
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

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jeff

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Edited By jeff
Would you accept free gas from these men?
Would you accept free gas from these men?
Sounds like the Mercenaries 2 "let's take over a gas station and give away free gas" stunt that went down without a hitch in Los Angeles last week didn't garner the same enthusiasm when duplicated over in Great Britain.

GamePolitics has the story from the UK's Telegraph, which states that £20,000 of "petrol" was scheduled to be given away for free. But the bobbies stepped in, shouted "what's all this, then" to anyone within earshot, and shut it down early, with only around half of the free gas going out.

Here in the States, the Los Angeles giveaway sounds like it went down as planned. EA took the opportunity to get people dressed up as the three mercs from the game and they shot a bunch of silly-ass video. There are a handful of fake news reports up on break.com, but here's my favorite.

  


The lesson here, obviously, is don't let your dress-up talent improv answers to questions. Totally shatters the whole illusion. Still, it's hard to argue with free gas, and for once, it's a game launch promotional tie-in that actually makes sense in the context of the game it's promoting.
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DukeTogo

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Edited By DukeTogo

Because armed, tattooed men at a gas station is par for the course here in LA.

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hatking

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Edited By hatking

So I'd assume most people getting the free gas had no idea what was going on.  So when she said something like lets kick some Venezuelan ass that probably sounded horribly racist to anybody who hadn't played the game. 

"Bring me my meh-money!"

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kitsune_conundrum

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free stuff for the people? no no, send in the fuzz!

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TheGTAvaccine

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Edited By TheGTAvaccine

Man, i totally facepalmed while watching that video. Horrible.

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rohanspear345

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Edited By rohanspear345

with his tiny toy microphone

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MitchyD

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Edited By MitchyD

The Jen Mui is hilariously awful. :D

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AndrewJD

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Edited By AndrewJD

I wish they'd done that where I live. Not because I wanna see people who look like wrestlers dressed up as Mercs characters, but because gas is frickin expensive son!!!!

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PLWolf

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Edited By PLWolf

They should do this in the Bay Area. I could definitely go for some free gas around here.
That video was hilarious, he almost cussed. lol

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RobDaFunk

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Edited By RobDaFunk

my drive this mornin sucked thanks to this.....didn't have time to queue for FREE gas either....

...plus it was rainin......but it always is here ;)

YAY!!

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Kohe321

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Edited By Kohe321

Thats a rather cool way of doing advertising.

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white

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Edited By white

Pitty the game was not as awesome as this viral marketing strategy.

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Draugrim

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That is solid second rate comedy, Mad TV style.

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Milkman

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Edited By Milkman

Drive great way of advertising, not a great way to make a fake news cast.

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Reynolds

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Edited By Reynolds

Man, that video was dumb.  None of those people has ever even heard of Mercenaries.

"We're going to buy some guns" was a pretty classic line though.
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tokyo_jesus

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Edited By tokyo_jesus

I don't think that dude should smoke a cigar in a gas station.

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reflekshun

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Edited By reflekshun

oh GAAAAD!!! had my hand over my mouth for half of that. the PAIN!!!! nobody takes my MO.... MONEY ROFL

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AaronBelfast

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Edited By AaronBelfast

WTF?

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D3adend

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Edited By D3adend

I feel bad watching them.

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ReAnimator

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Edited By ReAnimator

That girl reminds me of the model Candace Kita