Recently a tech company came out and acknowledged that they were behind a series of crops circles that had been left in various farms throughout an area.  It had been an ongoing controversy/point of interest in several communities and had been investigated by authorities.  They hired a professional company to create unusual designs that were not immediately decipherable to the public.  It turnd out to be some form of logo representing the company.

Is this a great marketing ploy?  A harmless prank?  Representitives from this company called authorities anonymously to alert them to the situation on the guise that they didn't know what was going on.  I have to think that there were some degree of government funds used at some point.

Should there be some kind of punishment for this, criminal or restitutional.  What would stop others from trying similar stunts.  There are many creative marketing minds out there who could find all sorts of different ways to use our public systems for their own promotion.

What do you think, just a quirky public interest story or something that needs to be addressed?