IBM to pay $100,000-plus in Linux ad mess

Ripped from C|Net

IBM has agreed to pay San Francisco a $100,000 fine and almost $20,000 in related costs to clean up after the company's "Peace, Love & Linux" ad campaign, in which the company's ad firm spray-painted logos on sidewalks and streets around the city.

When affirmed by the city's Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Willie Brown, the deal will end a nine-month saga between Big Blue and the Bay Area over the simple stencil of a peace symbol, a heart and a penguin, the official Linux mascot.

"They knew exactly what they were doing," said Gavin Newsom, one of the city's 11 supervisors. "They branded the three images. They knew it would create marketing. It's the guerrilla marketing that Ogilvy cherishes so much."

Ad firm Ogilvy & Mather spearheaded the campaign for IBM, hiring people to paint sidewalks with the stencils in a black chalk that was supposedly biodegradable. However, after several months, many of the stencils could still be seen.

While the ad campaign amused many Linux enthusiasts, the city considered it nothing more than graffiti.

News source: C|Net