When are PR firms going to learn their lesson about this sh*t? Any PR stunt that involves mysterious packages or messages being left in public places is going to result in trouble. It’s 2014 people. Expecting anyone to be charmed by mystery packages in 2014 would be like expecting somebody from the 1960s to be charmed by an air raid siren.
Yesterday Ubisoft delivered a mysterious package to a reporter at Australian news channel Ninemsn. The package contained a small black safe and a letter instructing the reporter to check their voicemail, except for some reason the voicemail never went through. The reporter started fooling around with the safe’s keypad and set off an angry beeping noise.
“The thing was black, heavy and slightly creepy. We did check with other newsrooms to see if they had received a similar package as we thought it was a PR stunt, but no-one else had. We weren’t panicked at any point, but given there was no note explaining what it was, we had to take sensible precautions.”
So yeah, the bomb squad was called in, they carefully pried the safe open and inside they found…a Watch Dogs hat and a copy of the game. Waugh-waaah. Ubisoft quickly issued an apology…
“As part of a themed promotion for Watch Dogs, our team in Australia sent voicemail messages to some local media alerting them that they’d receive a special package related to the game. Unfortunately, the delivery to Ninemsn didn’t go as planned, and we unreservedly apologise to Ninemsn’s staff for the mistake and for any problems caused as a result.”
Ubisoft’s safe after the Australian bomb squad got to it.
Next time don’t let your game designers think up your PR stunts, Ubisoft.