Grand Theft Auto creators detail Max Clifford’s engineered controversy

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Grand Theft Auto creators David Jones and Mike Dailly have gone into further detail on the fact that much of the controversy surrounding the series was engineered by publicist Max Clifford. The collaboration was last explored in David Kushner’s book Jacked: The Outlaw Story Of Grand Theft Auto.




He designed all the outcry, which pretty much guaranteed MPs would get involved,” Dailly explained. “He’d do anything to keep the profile high.”

Jones adds: “He told us how he would play it, who he would target, what those people targeted would say. Every word he said came true.”

Every decision, according to Jones, was influenced by what would be most fun to do, but that naturally pushed the campaign into darker and darker territory. It’s not new information, of course, but it’s a timely reminder of the contrived nature of publicising a product – especially with the GTA V campaign now winding up.