Thursday, February 01, 2007

Turner/Cartoon Network/Adult Swim/Williams Street Pooted*

After thinking WAY TOO MUCH about the infamous Aqua Teen Hunger Force "bomb scare" this morning AND reading the various Adult Swim communities about it, I decided to share my two cents about the matter.

For those of you who have somehow not heard about the now infamous incident:
Click here first.

And for those of you too lazy to click on the link: Someone in Boston found an electronic "device" that looked like Err, a literally 8-bit character from ATHF, giving the finger. Turns out that such "devices" were scattered all over the city AND nine other cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland (OR), Austin (TX), San Francisco, and Philadelphia) AND are as harmless as your pinky AND were a mere guerilla marketing ploy by Turner/Cartoon Network/Adult Swim/Williams Street to get people to see their (more than likely horrible) ATHF movie coming to theatres in March. Two of the people hired by Turner to put out said "devices" have been arrested and are being held on bond.

Now for my two cents...and I warn you now that you are more than likely going to have to brace yourself...

While I do think they are going a bit far in arresting the people merely hired by Turner/Cartoon Network...for sure, I could not be the only one to have had the brains to see the "bomb scare" coming from a mile away.

Think about it, something a lot of people in the Adult Swim groups I read need to do: You place a lot of random electronics throughout a city, and NOT expect a bomb scare of some proportion whenever they're discovered, be it immediately OR two-three weeks like this instance? I'm sorry, but THAT is dumb, especially in this day and age.

Don't get me wrong, I was AND still am one of those who found the bomb scare involving
the homage to the Super Mario Bros. question blocks a few years ago stupid. But, those boxes did not have anything involving electronics. They were just cardboard and holographic paper in most instances.

Now, to make something clear: Yes, I do think Boston and the government are overreacting. BUT, at the same time, I really am not at all surprised by the turn of events AND think that Turner/CN should have known better.

So, in the end, I don't know what scares me more: The fact that I seem to be the only one of the opinion that Turner/Cartoon Network/Adult Swim/Williams Street did not think about every aspect of their campaign to realize that it *could* have been perceived the wrong way. OR, the fact that Aqua Teen Hunger Force has sucked since the folks at Williams Street decided to get rid of the Dr. Weird intros, and apparently, it has not dawned upon Turner/CN/AS/WS that they *really* need to quit beating what is getting to be a dead horse. But, because of this mess, you watch the movie that was(still is) being promoted become #1 at the box office when it's released. Afterall, as that saying goes..."There's no such thing as bad publicity."


Current Music: "Nikki Learns A Song" - Chrono Cross OverClocked Remix

* - If you don't get the title, it comes from a series of billboards advertising Cartoon Network that said "I Pooted." and "I Have A Meat Beard.", and were up over last summer in at least Greensboro, Atlanta, and Rhode Island. After seeing pictures of them in a couple of LJ communities and the UNC Tar Heels board I occasionally read, I finally saw the Greensboro one in person passing through on I-40 when going down for my great aunt's funeral.

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