Oops - Marketing campaign gone wrong

[cheerful_deviant]

This was all over the local news all day. Boston was a total disaster today. The whole city basically ground to a halt because of the road and rail closures.

Suspicious devices part of marketing plan
Promotion of ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force’ cartoon closes Boston bridges

BOSTON - At least nine electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what a cable network said was a marketing campaign for a late-night cartoon.

Full Story

Must have seemed like such a good idea to someone.

 

[rgraham666]

As I said in another forum, Turner and Fox got the timing all wrong.

They should have done this back in October, when it could have affected the election.

 

[cumallday]

LOL...LOL...LOL, fart, LOL!

Those Lite-Brite effigies of Ignignokt and Err will be most displeasing to..., uh, well..., Ignignokt and Err; especially Err. What won't be displeasing to the Mooninites will be the mass hysteria and unfathomable ignorance of a far inferior race. Let's conclude by saying that the Mooninites were successfull in "rocking the face" of Beantown.

 

[R. Richard]

It appears that the advertising campaign caused at least $500K damage in the city of Boston. It would appear that the city will try to collect the money. I suspect that the cost and the collection efforts will prevent any similar advertising campaign.

 

[gauchecritic]

The Brak show and Sealab 2021 are superior products.

 

[deathlynx]

I just hope they drop the charges against the artist, regarding the planting of "Hoax Devices"...

 

[3113]

I just hope they drop the charges against the artist, regarding the planting of "Hoax Devices"...

He's been arrested, right? You know, I don't quite know how to feel about this. On the one hand, it's not THAT stupid a ploy (not like telling Airport security you're carrying a bomb or anything like that)...but it was foolish. And while, on the other hand, I want police, etc. to be on the alert, I have to feel rather annoyed that our paranoia is making everyone second-guess themselves and fear doing anything fun or creative.

Playfulness of any sort might be mistaken for something serious and get you fined and arrested

 

[deathlynx]

The stupid thing is that they've been in place for three weeks in cities across the country and no one thought anything about it? Now this has me split feelings...I'm ashamed that someone could hang up electronic devices across the country and no one would notice...At the same time, the fact that no one thought they were harmful for all that time should also help to discredit them as "hoax devices"...

 

[Jubal_Harshaw]

He's been arrested, right? You know, I don't quite know how to feel about this. On the one hand, it's not THAT stupid a ploy (not like telling Airport security you're carrying a bomb or anything like that)...but it was foolish. And while, on the other hand, I want police, etc. to be on the alert, I have to feel rather annoyed that our paranoia is making everyone second-guess themselves and fear doing anything fun or creative.

Playfulness of any sort might be mistaken for something serious and get you fined and arrested

As I see it they need to track down the idiots who saw some lights shaped like video game characters and arrest them causing the "widespread panic". What the hell were they thinking? "Hey there's some funny looking lights that look like something out of Ms. Pac-Man. Those weren't there yesterday... HOLY SHIT!!!! It must be a thermo-neuclear warhead planted by someone from Arabania or something! I gotta call the cops... I gotta call the National guard!... I gotta call CNN!!!"

Even the judge at the arraignment said he saw no malicious intent. So why the fuck is this going to trial?

So the press can sell the shit out of it, that's why.

 

[RiverCityWriter]

There was no such response in the other cities where the stunt was pulled, which makes authorities in Boston even angrier to think they're the only ones who overreacted.

Which means the police commissioner (newly-elected, right?) and the mayor (also newly-elected, I believe) will want their pound of flesh out of this, though the best they can expect is a stiff fine against Turner.

Turner, methinks, will be all too happy to fork over the thousands of dollars in fines that will be levied, because the publicity stunt reaped the Cartoon Network millions of dollars in free press!

Here again, the old bromide is proven true: There's no such thing as bad publicity. (I can relate - I'm in marketing and PR myself.)

 

[TE999]

It's all Meatwad's fault!

(channeling Master Shake)

 

[JamesSD]

There was no such response in the other cities where the stunt was pulled, which makes authorities in Boston even angrier to think they're the only ones who overreacted.

Which means the police commissioner (newly-elected, right?) and the mayor (also newly-elected, I believe) will want their pound of flesh out of this, though the best they can expect is a stiff fine against Turner.

Turner, methinks, will be all too happy to fork over the thousands of dollars in fines that will be levied, because the publicity stunt reaped the Cartoon Network millions of dollars in free press!

Here again, the old bromide is proven true: There's no such thing as bad publicity. (I can relate - I'm in marketing and PR myself.)

Well put.

The more we learn about this story, the more clearly the egg is on the faces of the city of Boston.

 

[rgraham666]

Playfulness of any sort might be mistaken for something serious and get you fined and arrested

Shh. Don't give 'em any ideas!

 

[cumallday]

Not since Orson Welles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJkTNJ7BM9I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRBcuYgm-C0

 

[English Lady]

just imagine for a minute these weren't just little advert thingies. imagine they're bombs diguised as friendly little advert thingies.

How pissed off would you all be if they'd exploded and killed/maimed 100's maybe 1000's of people?

 

[3113]

just imagine for a minute these weren't just little advert thingies. imagine they're bombs diguised as friendly little advert thingies.

How pissed off would you all be if they'd exploded and killed/maimed 100's maybe 1000's of people?

Let me see. I'm a terrorist and I'm going to put up little flashing adverts that took me weeks and tons of money to make and are SOMEHOW a bomb...how these little things can be an effective bomb, I don't know, nor do I know how they can do that much damage given their size and placement. But we'll assume they can.

Uh-oh, they're drawing a lot of attention because they're flashing adverts! That means that if just one person gets suspicious, if just one expert looks at JUST ONE and finds it's a bomb, I'm done for! All my little adverts will be taken down before they explode!

Hmmm. If I really want to blow up a lot of people, I should probably put my bombs in gutters or under trash cans or behind signs where NO ONE WILL SEE THEM so they can really do damage.

I mean, come on, EL! These officials couldn't look at JUST ONE of these flashing adverts and realize that they weren't bombs? Terrorists bomb cars for a reason. Because they're big enough to hide bombs, they explode, and people don't look twice at them. If we're going to take our paranoia that far, it should make sense--over things that a terrorist without a lot of money, time or technical ingenuity can rig to do the most damage.

Small flashing cartoon adverts as explosives? That's Batman Villain territory, not pragmatic terrorist territory...not sayin' it couldn't happen. But do we want to live our lives always scared of everything? Of trashcans, gutters, subways and flashing adverts?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

If the morons in Boston had looked at the adverts instead of going off half cocked, it would have been no big deal. In fact, they were posted in the Seattle area too. Did you even hear about that?

 

[deathlynx]

Well, I have to admit that a single pound of C4 could cause one heck of an explosion...It could probably be spread over the back of a 1' x 1' sign...And while some of the signs were simply in high profile locations (like the Fleet Center) some where underneath bridges and overpasses which you'd need to take architecture and mechanical engineering into consideration...

Although I do have to agree that they were up for far too long, people should have noticed...