Miami man says he was fired after leaking GTA 6 beach ads
A Miami Beach worker says he lost his job after his TikTok showing GTA 6 Vice City beach chairs and umbrellas went viral before Rockstar's campaign launched.
Reported. Established outlets report this. Rockstar hasn't said so.
A Miami Beach worker says he was let go from his job after a TikTok he filmed of Vice City branded beach chairs, umbrellas and cabanas spread across the internet before Rockstar's campaign officially went live. In a follow-up video on October 20, TikTok user Graham Simmon put it bluntly: "GTA 6 cost me my job."
Simmon's account was picked up by Dexerto, Kotaku and Brazil's GameVicio. As GameVicio points out, his employer has not confirmed the firing, so for now the whole story comes from Simmon himself.
What Simmon says happened
GameVicio reports the original clip went up on October 14 and showed Simmon unboxing the GTA 6 themed beach gear. According to Dexerto, the equipment didn't go out on the sand until October 15. Simmon says the video had fewer than 1,000 views when he was told to delete it. By then it was too late: other users had already saved the footage, and screenshots spread across X, Instagram and TikTok.
"The company I worked for really didn't like that, so they let me go," Simmon said in his October 20 video, adding that he can no longer work for them. He told viewers he was new to the job and hadn't been told that filming the materials was off limits, Kotaku reports.
He isn't angry about it, though. In his video's caption, Simmon said the mistake was his own and that he wasn't blaming the company, calling the whole thing a "funny story" more than a grievance.
A $4 million beach takeover
The stakes for whoever was handling the gear help explain the reaction. Dexerto reports the beach equipment belongs to a $4 million deal between Rockstar and Boucher Brothers, a beach services company in Miami Beach. Dexerto doesn't say directly whether Boucher Brothers was Simmon's employer, and Simmon hasn't named the company in the coverage so far. A post from fan account GTA 6 Countdown also claimed Boucher Brothers planned to post security guards by the equipment overnight to stop people stealing it, which nobody has confirmed.
The beach is only one piece of a much bigger push. Over the past few weeks Rockstar has put ads up at the Miami Heat's Kaseya Center, covered downtown hotels in GTA 6 artwork, and sent GTA themed cars around the city, with Kotaku also mentioning blimps. Our earlier coverage of the supercars, Burger Shot and fake brand ads goes through what has turned up so far. According to Dexerto, the City of Miami wants more money before the campaign can expand to other spots, including Miami International Airport.
The tie-ins keep piling up elsewhere too. Dexerto cites fan site iGrandTheftAuto, which found that three beer labels linked to GTA 6 have been approved by the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, so they could end up in stores and bars.
What comes next
For players, the Simmon episode is a small reminder of how tightly Rockstar controls its reveals, right down to beach furniture. That control is about to matter less. The next big local event is the Miami Heat's Vice City night on November 18, and GTA 6 launches the next day, November 19, on PS5 and Xbox.
Fans online have speculated that the themed cars driving around Miami could be filming for another trailer or social video from Rockstar. That is guesswork for now. Rockstar has not commented on Simmon's story, and neither has the company he says fired him.
