Last week, I wondered when the presidential campaign and Warner Brothers’ campaign for The Dark Knight would merge. Today, the political and the movie promotional have become fully intertwined, although on a much more local scale than I had originally predicted.

According to the Village Voice (via Gothamist), Queens Councilman Hiram Monserrate is lobbying to officially brand New York City with the nickname Gotham City in time for The Dark Knight’s July release. Apparently, Monserrate thinks associating his city with a fictional flying crime fighter and a deranged, make-up wearing lunatic will be good for tourism. “I see that as a marketing tool,” he told the Voice. “‘Come visit the real Gotham City,’ taking advantage of this movie which will be one of those gate-breaking, record-selling movies like it always is.” He then mumbled something about how how Christopher Nolan’s Chicago-shot movie will help New York’s “art community to strengthen its reconnection to being a Gotham City,” and also something else about how frappuccinos embody the spirit of Batman.

Check out the full crazy at the link, and then tell us: if a studio were to, uh, make it worthwhile for a city official to sponsor a crackpot resolution involving one of their films, would that be bribery, or just really, really good viral marketing?