A man who pointed an imitation pistol at 20 drinkers outside an Auckland, NZ bar on Friday evening got more than he bargained for when armed police were called out.

The toy gun-wielding actor was pulling a stunt to promote Splinter Cell: Conviction, the hit Ubisoft title (our review is here), and was arrested with an accomplice on the scene. They got off lightly: although the police were pissed off, they issued cautions, rather than shoot them.

Bar manager Steph Kurtovich told the NZ Herald: "This guy with bandages on his hands pointed a gun at customers sitting outside. They were pretty terrified."

Now to Monaco Corporation, the games promoter, which said it had hired another company to organise the event and did not know that a gun would be used.

"We do apologise, we shouldn't have had guns down there," said Duane Mutu, Monaco's marketing manager told the Herald. "It was just marketing gone wrong."

That's all right, then.