It’s not quite on par with Gerald Ratner describing his products as “crap” but you can’t beat the sight of a brand shooting itself in the foot and it happened last night at the Games Media Awards in London.

The sponsors for the event were north-based games retail chain Grainger Games, but it seems as though their big cheeses used the event as their own personal Big Night Out. On the menu were…

* A giant orange Humvee, parked outside the venue

* Booth babes and dwarves, dressed in orange hot pants and orange shorts respectively. Both freezing their tits off.

* Grainger-branded condoms scattered on every table inside the venue.

* Constant haranguing of the compere and award winners throughout, including chants of ‘Toon Army, Toon Army!’ (the company started out as a market stall in Newcastle’s Grainger Market).

* One member of the Grainger entourage invading the stage during the presentation of an award, so that he could do a silly, hip-thrusting dance.

* The peppering of the Games Media Legend award, the biggest gong of the night, being broken up by booing and slow-handclapping from the sponsor’s table.

Quality stuff – it all ended when the Grainger gang realised they’d overstepped the mark (or as one report suggests, were discovered ‘enjoying the refreshments’ in the toilets) and headed off into Central London in a couple of cabs, throwing gang signs at anyone who’d look in their direction.

Can Grainger Games expect any favourable coverage in the games press following this? That remains to be seen (as long as they’re beating the competition price-wise, we’ll certainly contiunue to feature them here). Will those attendees who were appalled by it all turn up at future events and note that, actually, it was much more fun when Grainger Games got hammered that time? That also remains to be seen.

No such thing as bad publicity though is there?

[Gizmodo]