Following the incident last week where twenty people were injured trying to claim vouchers for 'free phones', smartphone maker LG has postponed all future commercial events, including a live piranha swim and a simulated desert combat tournament, citing 'lack of planning' and 'unsafe activities' as the main reason behind it.
The sponsored event for the new flagship product, the G2 smartphone, turned sour when visitors took to the main activity far too seriously. LG had organised for helium balloons to contain vouchers for a free phone but many of the participants turned up with BB guns and pointed sticks. As a result, all further promotional stunts had been cancelled.
An inside source claimed that LG, acting on the popular notion that people liked 'risky' forms of entertainment, had devised a set of challenging tasks to reward only their most loyal fans. One such event was to seal some phones at the bottom of a swimming pool infested with live piranhas, allowing for the customers to make a dive for a phone. Piranhas are known for their vicious feeding frenzies and pack like behaviour however the source claimed that "all measures where taken to ensure the fish were not hungry" and that "the piranhas were merely there to get pulses racing".
Another planned event was to equip customers with bean-bag-filled guns and put them in a desert storm-like situation where the winning team would each get a phone.
Asia is known for its wild variety in game show themes however this controversial stunt lacked the planning nor careful safety considerations that many TV shows vigorously enforced.
The LG G2 smartphone will be available for £550 and is expected to reach shelves in the next few months.
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