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El Blanco · #26

These are the two guys that were paid some cash to place the boxes where they were told. They aren't the ad guys themselves.

Guerilla marketing is nothing new and this is not the first instance of strange objects dropped around cities........wait....

Are you sticking up for Boston?

KevinTheOmnivore · #27

Regardless, I doubt Turner will leave these guys out to dry for their idea. They'll be ok.

"“Guerrilla marketing never offends people, it never frightens people, and it never breaches ethics,” said Jay Conrad Levinson, the “father of guerrilla marketing” and author of “Guerrilla Marketing” books that have sold 14 million." LINK

Honestly, is it so outrageous that people might get scared by random, blinking boxes in public places in a "post-9/11 world"? Do you care about your country, Blanco? :leegreenwood

And as for my concern for Boston, I only wish they had been bombs.

mozz · #28

Wow. This really shows americas obsessive paranoia post 9/11.

Ant10708 · #29

Quote:

Originally Posted by xbxDaniel

It means a lot of publicity for ATHF though. They got more press from this than the actual advertising.

I havn't even heard the movie mentioned once since this happened so I dunno.

El Blanco · #30

9 other cities had these things without incident. Its Boston, not the whole country.

They weren' trying to offend, or frighten. It certainly wasn't unethical.

maggiekarp · #31

Apparantly the guys who put the stuff up and their friends saw what was going on around 1 pm, but were told by the ad company to keep quiet until Turner found out what was going on at 5.

Huh.

xbxDaniel · #32

It seems like Turner Broadcasting got a little nervous at first, though. I think they didn't intend for this scenario to occur. I say this because they put out a public apology on adult swim.com as well as removed ATHF-related material off the site after the incident. A lot of it's back online now, though, including the episodes. I know so many of you visit that site and all, you probably already knew that.

Did Turner know that this advertisement was going down like this?

xbxDaniel · #33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ant10708

I havn't even heard the movie mentioned once since this happened so I dunno.

But, they've mentioned the show itself, as well as when it airs and on what channel, almost everytime I've seen it displayed on the News.

Seven Force · #34

I'm glad this ruckus is showing what a bunch of fear-mongering assholes the media has turned out to be these days.

mburbank · #35

I work in Boston, and I think this is totally the product of the climate of fear we now live in.

"I also believe this is precisely what these guys wanted to have happen. You can't even have bbq on your street without a permit in most cases, so should we believe these guys thought it was legit to stick these random boxes up in public places?"

Kev, do you mean they wanted a whole lot of attention, with which I'd agree, or they thought these light brites would be mistaken for bombs, thereby garnering a lot of attention? Until Boston authorities back off the idea that the bomb scare aspect was intentional, they just look stupid.

I have a photo of one of the devices being removed in front of me as we speak. While I suppose it's possible a terrorist would make a bomb look harmless by putting lite bright thingies in teh shape of a schmematic guy fluipping you off as a clever diversion, and I do believe it's better safe than sorry, once the bomb squad blew up the first one they might have been pacidied by the fact that what remianed contained batteries, wires, lightbright things and no trcaes of explosives.

The overreaction is forgiveable. The continue outrage, I think, has a lot more to do with looking ridiculous and being angry about it than anything else, especially after Turner agreed to pay expenses right away.

The world is a dangerous place in a lot of ways. One inept guy with an explosive device in his shoe that he was unable to set off means from now on everyone takes off their shoes. Drunk drivers kill people every day, in numbers that exceed any sort of terrorist threat. It's tragic, horrible and avoidable. So we have laws and punishments, but we don't make everyone who gets behind the wheel prove they aren't drunk before they start the car, because while it would be far more effective, it would be a gross over reaction. I think a lot of what we do since 9/11 is way more about fear and posturing than about saftey.