LG promotional event which left 20 injured dubbed 'World War G'

Vouchers for free smartphones were attached to balloons but attendees brought BB guns to bring them down

An advertising stunt designed to promote LG’s new G2 smartphone ended with 20 injured participants and the South Korean electronics company covering their medical treatment.

Designed to complement LG’s ‘G in the Cloud’ advertising slogan, the event aimed to give away free G2s by attaching vouchers to balloons and challenging attendees to bring them down in any way they saw fit.

First spotted by The Verge, video from South Korean television news shows that customers arrived with a variety of weapons intended to ground the balloons – including BB guns and a pointed staff.

News footage of the event was intercut with scenes from recent zombie-flick World War Z, showing hordes of the undead scrambling over each other mindlessly. The same news outlet dubbed the event ‘World War G’.

One hundred balloons were released in total but many quickly floated away before any of the attendees could reach them. LG have cancelled other planned events over safety concerns.

The LG G2 will sell for KRW 950,000 in South Korea (approximately £550) and is expected to be released in the UK in October.

The high-end smartphone features a 5.2-inch screen with 1080 x1920 resolution and 423 ppi pixel density. It also has 2GB of RAM and a 2.26GHz processor, though the real stand-out addition is the placement of the phone’s physical buttons on the back of the handset.