A San Mateo-based "cloud-based data-warehousing startup" found a vendor that claimed they could project the company's name on the SF City Hall dome on Wednesday night in celebration of their IPO, and city officials don't understand how this happened.

"We don’t put corporate advertising on the top of City Hall," says Bill Barnes, spokesperson for the City Administrator’s Office, speaking to the Examiner. "That’s not what we do."

Snowflake, the startup in question, says as far it knew through the vendor, National Experiential, all necessary permits were obtained. But Barnes says no, it was completely unauthorized.

San Franciscans who may have been out and about near Civic Center on Wednesday evening might have assumed this was just another projection-based art project aimed at mocking them and their PC liberal "snowflake" reputations.

You also might be forgiven for seeing the correlation between the word and the Christmas colors that the dome was lit up in — those were actually in celebration of Mexican National Day, the colors of the Mexican flag.

But no. This was just an ad.

It's unclear if the City Attorney will make anyone pay for this.