LG’s Promotional Event Turned Into A Shooting Manifest Injuring 20 People

Businesses often find unique ways of promoting their products, and LG is no alien to this. However, this time the promotional event turned into havoc. LG planned to promote its latest smartphone G2 through a series of publicity stunts.

It decided to let loose 100 helium-filled balloons, each one of them carrying the voucher that entitled the recipient to get the ($852.54) smartphone. It actively promoted the marketing maneuver on social media. As a result, people converged in large numbers to witness the release of balloons and grab the vouchers.

But initially what sounded a perfect marketing strategy quickly turned into chaos. After the promotion of this marketing magic from LG, people were prompt to figure out that the only way to get the voucher was to burst the balloon. They came to the event armed with BB guns, knives on sticks and other weapons to burst the balloons.

As soon as the balloons were released, people gushed to get their targets. They fired BB guns into the air to get their targets. In the midst of this, a major commotion was created, and 20 people were injured. It is also reported that LG only employed 20 guards to control the huge attendance.

LG responded to this turmoil by promising compensation to the injured people. The idea of promoting smartphone through a unique promotional event backfired LG. The company had many such events aligned in the future. Considering the dismay of its first event, it has withdrawn all the other similar events for the future.

This is not the first instance where PR stunts have horribly gone wrong. It has happened earlier in 2007, when the Nintendo’s Wii was booming and the US radio station KDND promoted the event by promising listeners a free console for drinking maximum amount of water in the air. The contest was named, “Hold Your Wee for a Wii”. The event resulted in the death of the winner due to water intoxication. Luckily for LG, no one died. This is one of the most ill-thought out promotional event that went bizarre.