>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23681200
>
>"People arrived with BB guns and knives on sticks for a race to grab smartphone vouchers hanging from helium balloons"

Stuff like this really makes me wonder.

I'd like to believe this is just yet another Dilbertesque blunder brought to us by marketing types who "think differently".

OTOH I bet LG has already achieved more publicity for that new phone than they would have if the entire introduction campaign had gone off exactly as planned. Customers rioting to get hold of your phones is even better than days-long lineups at retail stores, right?

In an era when marketers are actively looking at ways to get advertising campaigns to go viral, are incidents like this actually being planned?