ericmortensen:

peterfeld:

Zynga, the web-polluting company whose e-scum brands like FarmVille and Mafia Wars profit by harvesting cash from game-addled web simpletons, has decided to bring some of its IRL pollution to a neighborhood near you. This picture was taken at Third Avenue and East 9th St. near St. Marks Books in New York City.

Zynga’s recent scams include a revenue model dependent on ads that dupe gamers trying to earn online points into signing up for costly, recurring charges for mobile subscriptions and learning CDs, as well as misleading donors to Haiti relief and keeping half the money and taking advantage of game-addicted children who have access to their parents’ phones and computers by selling them imaginary products and refusing to issue refunds. Their marketing promotions worsen the obesity epidemic through FarmVille-branded junk food at 7-Eleven. Zynga is the perfect match for privacy rogue Facebook, who generates most of their traffic, and with whom they’ve just signed a deal for a five-year strategic partnership.

This company is scum to the core. Now they are pasting their ads all over our sidewalks. If you’re playing any of their games, please just remove those applications from your Facebook profile. Just say no to FarmVille and Mafia Wars.

According to East Village Feed:

Zynga, the SF-based game developer, recently began a regional marketing campaign, including SF and NY, to promote their new game, Mafia Wars. The marketing included pasting promotional ‘dollar bills’ throughout city sidewalks:

The City of San Francisco was not happy. Quoting an SFGate.com article from this last weekend:

A steam cleaner has to be brought in to do the work, and it takes about 45 minutes in each location, plus administrative time, [Department of Public Works] officials said.

dminkin:

nycthe:

Is this what Fred Wilson had in mind with his large financial investment in Zynga?

“Hey, I’ve got a great idea. Let’s advertise our product by littering all over the public’s property in Manhattan. But, there’s a catch…the litter will have our name on it! Better yet, glue that shit down, so it can not be removed. Permanent litter with our name on it=permanent advertising!”

Here’s what I think of that idea. I’d like it if you cleaned it up. And I’m not the only one. Fellow residents of New York City are not pleased.

The blogger behind East Village Feed reached out to Zynga’s CEO and PR representative and has yet to hear back.

Please help keep your city clean. Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.

This should get cleaned up soon. God knows the company can afford to. Which makes it all the more galling they resorted to shitting all over public property. As a fellow activist likes to say, this won’t end.

what a bunch of dicks.