If there is no such thing as bad publicity, then we suppose yesterday's Cash Tomato promotion was a resounding success - if a melee as people tried to grab money works for you. The event, which involved giving away $29 to individuals in honor of Leap Year - wait, make that $29 attached to tomatoes, resulted in a Union Square riot with one person hospitalized and police and paramedics on the scene.
From the video, it seems that once someone discovered a whole bagful of $29 giveaways, an NFL-fumble-worthy pile-on erupted; and then things got out of hand. The promotion was supposed to be $29 distributed individually to pedestrians, but things degenerated when one of the company's employees panicked at the surge of people and dumped the cash in a garbage bag and quickly retreated. This almost makes the huge frozen-popsicle on a hot summer day Union Square promotion from Snapple look smart!
One winner-take-all teen attempted to make off with the entire bag of cash until the growing crowd intervened. The online sponsor of Friday's riot, Cash Tomato is an Internet video sharing site, although competitor YouTube seems to be reaping the benefits of the fiasco. A similar event was planned for San Francisco last week, but the SF police asked the event not take place in park.
