"Peace, Love, and Linux" is an advertising campaign by IBM that backfired. Since they started supporting Linux on their hardware rather than other operating systems, someone came up with the idea of advertising it.

The advertising consisted of a series of three symbols -- a heart a peace symbol (CND), and Tux the Linux penguin -- that were spraypainted on the sidewalks of San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago.

City officials, however, considered the advertisements graffiti (as in vandalism). San Fransisco officials ordered IBM to remove the ads and Chicago officials fined the company more than $18,000. Additionally, Ali Morsey, who worked for one of IBM's advertising agencies, was charged with criminal property damage and possession of spray paint (a crime in Chicago). He admitted to painting a single location and was ordered to perform community service, with a year of court supervision.

IBM does not plan to continue the campaign, and isn't likely to do anything similar in the future.

Strange for cities where graffiti is so common.

Thanks to cnn.com for the news.

(asterphage adds that Peace, Love and Linux happened in New York City as well)

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