miami-dade officials are pushing back on rockstar's gta 6 marketing blitz

Rockstar's marketing for GTA 6 has gone full takeover mode in actual Miami, and not everyone is thrilled about it. We already saw the logo airlifted onto the Kaseya Center earlier this month, plus that upcoming Miami Heat crossover with jerseys and a branded court. Now there are GTA-style cars driving around the city, a huge Vice City blimp overhead, and branded beach chairs and umbrellas getting dropped on south Florida beaches. Ads are showing up in Chicago and New York too, so it's not just a local thing.

But some Miami-Dade county commissioners are not happy about the county taking Rockstar's money to promote a game about crime. Commissioner René Garcia put it bluntly:

We're depicting Miami like a murder capital.

Commissioner Micky Steinberg added that philosophically she doesn't think they should be moving forward with it.

The mayor's office sees it differently. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is hoping to bring in millions from the partnership, and her chief of staff Chris Hudtwalcker called the GTA 6 takeovers a love letter to the city. Chairman Anthony Rodriguez sponsored the legislation authorizing the negotiations and basically told everyone to relax. He said it's a fictional game and that we're all adults in this community, we recognize it's just a game. He also warned against cutting our nose to spite our face over made-up plot lines and digital characters.

I get why some officials are uncomfortable, but GTA has always used Vice City as a satirical version of Miami. The county taking the money while complaining about the content is peak Miami energy. Rockstar knows exactly what they're doing with this marketing push, and the controversy is probably just free advertising at this point.

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Source: GameSpot · Curated content.