本周，Zynga网络游戏公司收到了一封来自旧金山市律师办公室的谴责信。在该信中，Zynga公司热门游戏“Mafia Wars”的游击营销策略被比做“街景破坏者”。

市律师代表Alex Tes在该信中指责Zynga在旧金山的街道上贴满了推销“Mafia Wars”的涂鸦广告,并指出：拉斯维加斯也正因为其非法违规而面临着公共工程部门的移除。

与此同时，市律师办公室责令Zynga提供在旧金山进行涂鸦广告的时间、地点和执行者。

mafia-wars-play-now

受聘于Zynga的旧金山Davis Elen广告公司发表声明说：“我们负有本次广告项目的全部责任，很遗憾该广告给旧金山城市及其居民所造成的不便。我们正全力全力配合市政府解决这一问题。”

市律师发言人Matt Dorsey认为Zynga的宣传活动比历年来的类似活动更为恶劣。“那简直是一团乱，比涂鸦还糟糕。”

2001年，国际商用机器公司（IBM）也在该城市开展了一次游击营销活动。他们在某些地方喷涂上企鹅图像，宣传兜售该公司服务器的linux软件。这一营销活动同样在该城市受到了谴责。

随着其开发的游戏越来越为Facebook用户所喜欢，zynga公司已今非昔比。最近，雅虎公司声明将开始在雅虎网站上分销zynga游戏。

Digital Sky Technology作为Zynga和Facebook在俄罗斯的主要投资商。据报导，去年该公司曾就Zynga进行估值，后者可能高达30亿美元市值。

谷歌公司也是zynga的投资商之一，此外还包括风险资本公司Andreessen Horowitz和Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers。（译者：dora）

拓展：mafia wars 的另外一次营销因为涉及暴力等因素也被英国广告标准局禁止了

zynga关于mafia wars广告问题的回应

Zynga Game Network Inc. drew an angry letter from the San Francisco city attorney’s office this week, likening the company’s guerrilla marketing of its popular “Mafia Wars” game in the city as “sidewalk vandalism.”

Deputy City Attorney Alex Tse told San Francisco-based Zynga in the letter Thursday that its fake bills plastered to the sidewalk in various neighborhoods to promote “Mafia Wars: Las Vegas” are being removed by the Department of Public Works at considerable expense, and are “illegal and actionable.”

The city attorney’s office also is asking closely held Zynga to provide it with information that shows “when and where the graffiti in San Francisco was placed, and by whom.”

Davis Elen Advertising, which deployed the Zynga campaign in San Francisco, said in a statement: “We take full responsibility for the program, regret any inconvenience this advertising has caused to the city and its residents and are working with the city to immediately resolve the issue.”

City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey said the Zynga campaign has had a worse effect than other, similar efforts made in the city over the years.

“It really is a mess; it’s worse than stenciling,” Dorsey said.

Other guerrilla-marketing campaigns in the city include a 2001 effort by International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) to cover some areas with stenciled penguins, as advertisements touting the use of open-source Linux software on the company’s servers. That campaign also drew the city’s ire.

Zynga’s profile has surged, as its games have drawn an increasing number of players on social-networking service Facebook Inc. In addition, Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) recently announced that it would distribute Zynga games on its sites.

Zynga and Facebook share an investor in Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies. DST’s investment in Zynga late last year reportedly set a valuation for the company that was as high as $3 billion.

Google Inc. (GOOG) is also reportedly a Zynga investor. Other backers include venture-capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. (source:wsj)