In one of the more tragic cases of fun PR gone very wrong, BMW has apologized after a Mini-sponsored weather pattern named "Cooper" turned into a brutal deep freeze that so far has killed over a hundred people in Eastern Europe.


The storm's temperature has dipped down to the mid-twenties below zero Fahrenheit, shattering records from Poland down through the Balkan Peninsula and leaving tens of thousands at severe risk. Massive snowfalls have isolated mountain villages in Serbia. Current predictions say the front could linger through the end of February.

BMW's PR office had signed up for the weather-naming program run by the German meteorological office and unintentionally ended up with the Arctic monstrosity. People were encouraged to follow the front's progress online before the death toll started climbing. A low-pressure front is scheduled to be called "Minnie" later this year, but there is now some debate about the wisdom of risking Nature's wrath again.