Shouldn't the Fucktard Rulers of Boston Be the Ones Who Resign?
The Mooninite Invasion has claimed its first scalp!:
The bomb scare caused by a Cartoon Network advertising campaign has cost the head of the Atlanta-based network his job.
Jim Samples, the General Manager and Vice-President of the network owned by Turner Broadcasting, stepped down Friday.
In an e-mail to company employees Samples said "I deeply regret the negative publicity and expense caused to our company as a result of this campaign."
"I feel compelled to step down in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch."
The company agreed earlier this week to pay $2 million to the city of Boston to cover the cost of the bomb scare that shut down highways and roads across the city.
More than three dozen blinking electronic signs with a boxy cartoon character giving an obscene hand gesture were found in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville. The signs, part of a publicity campaign for Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," also appeared in nine other big U.S. cities in recent weeks, with little interest.
But in Boston, bomb squads responded to reports of the devices in a subway station, on bridges and elsewhere.
Advice to Samples: Hire Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
Advice to Turner Broadcasting, parent of CN: Get a freaking grip and levy blame where it belongs. On the idiots running Boston.
Advice to the rest of us: Read Dave Weigel's column about the whole thing.
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This memo to Mayor Mumbles may not help, but...:
http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/02/a_message_tobos.html
Regardless of who is at fault for the Boston incident, if it strikes a blow against the nefarious practice of "guerilla marketing" I'm going to chalk it up as a good thing.
This whole matter could have been resolved if the mayor simply got THAT THING that I sent him.
Is it just me, or does Harvey Birdman bear more than a passing resemblance to Keith Olbermann?
I think I going to get cosmetic surgery to extend the length of my index finger. For emphasis and all.
Too late. The original sin was the apology and offer of reparations rather than what TBS executives should have said:
"TBS' recent ad campaign was legal and was conducted in nine other cities without incident. We are sorry for anyone disrupted due to the misunderstanding and overreaction of state and local officials."
And give the mayor of Boston their attorney's card.
Nick,
Let it go.
Regards,
Sammy
"Is it just me, or does Harvey Birdman bear more than a passing resemblance to Keith Olbermann?"
I think so too!
""TBS' recent ad campaign was legal and was conducted in nine other cities without incident. We are sorry for anyone disrupted due to the misunderstanding and overreaction of state and local officials.""
So you'd be okay with a direct mail campaign that sent out envelopes containing an innocuous white powder in order to promote the film "Blow"?
I've yet to hear or see an accurate timeline of events from the date in question. In particular, I'd like to know:
1) Who reported the first ATHF sign? When?
--All I've heard is that there was a single civilian report to the transit authority about a single sign in the subway system.
2) Who reported the remaining ATHF signs?
--I haven't heard any reports that civilians report these signs. I suspect they were all discovered by the police, since to the best of my knowledge, BPD didn't release an image of the ATHF to the general public until well after the "scare" was underway.
3) When did this all happen relative to the real fake pipe bombs?
--This is the most important question. What exactly put BPD in freak out mode? Did they get the hospital threats before the ATHF "threat", or after? If before, it gives them a shred of credibility, but if after?
Of course, we'll never see anything brought to light because Menino would prefer to collect his $2M and bury the issue for all time.
This goes in the same file as "I know there's been a lot of rumors on the INTERNETS," "a series of tubes," and the intrusion by Republican Judiciary Committee staffers into the Democratic staff's files.
The people in positions of responsibility are too old to keep up with contemporary culture, and it's only going to get worse.
""TBS' recent ad campaign was legal and was conducted in nine other cities without incident. We are sorry for anyone disrupted due to the misunderstanding and overreaction of state and local officials."
It continues:
"Our goal was simply to put out advertising that many people would not instantly recognize as being advertising. We wanted to confuse people and get them talking. But we were hoping to confuse them in a totally different way, and cannot be held responsible when people get confused in a manner that we did not intend."
In Japan, the CEO would have resigned.
Yes, this was all paranoia, but who knows what a blinking device could be disguising? How many train stations and malls have been closed because some guy left his lunch bag on a bench?
This reaction is what terrorists love to see as it vastly amplifies the few real threats they can mount. These nuts could shut down most of America through bomb threats if they had non-traceable cell phones to use.
Not to mention some cops in Boston had had to of seen these before. Why didn't they do anything about them.
So you'd be okay with a direct mail campaign that sent out envelopes containing an innocuous white powder in order to promote the film "Blow"?
If the ATHF campaign had been to plant what appeared to be pipe bombs around cities, you would have a point. The ATHF lite brites did not look like any bombs that have ever been planted anywhere.
If your envelopes were sent out before the anthrax scare, they probably would not have created a public scare. People would have been outraged that they thought someone was sending them an illegal substance, but they would not have felt that their lives were threatened. Only after the anthrax mailings would your direct mail campaign appear to be a threat.
stevenintheknow,
just go with the Superfinger
Nick
Okay, it's really not possible to claim that the lite brites were somehow intrinsically threatening. The hysteria was set off by a fake pipe bomb, *totally unrelated* to Zebbler and glitch crew. After that we can only assume that anything with a circuitboard or wires is assumed to be dangerous by the neanderthal police.
I suppose we could tolerate the removal of the ads as an over-zealous security precaution, but the stupidity of blaming the people hired to put them up reveals that this has nothing to do with security in the first place.
No doubt all details will be exposed to the media in another two weeks once this spectacle has time to fester and ferment a little more.
There are cars & trucks all over the country with digital graphics covering them to advertise various businesses. My question is - how do we know those vehicles aren't full of explosives, and when are all those businesses going to be held accountable for driving around town in what could very well be car bombs?!
Awwwwwww shoot!
The Boston two were the best thing that happened to American media/jurisprudence/culture this century. Now all their good work is for naught.
So you'd be okay with a direct mail campaign that sent out envelopes containing an innocuous white powder in order to promote the film "Blow"?
Nice try, not even close to the same thing. Everything isn't equal to everything else. Had TBS placed a device that was bomb-like, then your point would be salient. The device wasn't bomb like, despite what the tardlets that make up the greater Boston Security Industrial Complex say .
I was under the impression that government employees, by the very definition of being a government employee, are not capable of being to blame.
In Japan, the CEO would have resigned.
I won't be satisfied until Mumbles Meninio pulls an R. Budd Dwyer.
Miss one damn html tag...
So you'd be okay with a direct mail campaign that sent out envelopes containing an innocuous white powder in order to promote the film "Blow"?
Every time I think I've come across the dumbest analogy I've ever read, someone has to come along and up the ante.
if it strikes a blow against the nefarious practice of "guerilla marketing" I'm going to chalk it up as a good thing
So if the sheer waste of taxpayers money, the disruption of normal city life, the scaremongering and the utter ineptness of city officials is to be taken as a good thing IF they lead to a "blow" against "guerrilla marketing" (whatever the heck that means), that leads me to have a fightening image of what a government would have to do in order for Dan T. to call it a "bad thing".
Sorry, should be "ARE to be taken" and it is Taxpayers' money, not taxpayers money.
actually, this makes me love guerrilla marketing more because it's proof of discordian principles at work.
Dan T. is teh l4m3 tr011. He just disagrees with us no matter how stupid it sounds.
Oh, and nice use of the word 'Fucktard'.
There are postal regulations about shipping powders, liquids, and the like requiring both proper packaging and labeling, so your straw man scenario would be illegal. But feel free to try again.
p.s., my daughter loves you as Captain Jack.
"Every time I think I've come across the dumbest analogy I've ever read, someone has to come along and up the ante."
I'm still laughing, five minutes later.
The correct response: Turner orders two million dollars worth of pizza for Mayor Mumbles.
p.s., my daughter loves you as Captain Jack.
Shit, that's nothing. I'd let my wife f**k you if I could watch.
So if the sheer waste of taxpayers money, the disruption of normal city life, the scaremongering and the utter ineptness of city officials is to be taken as a good thing IF they lead to a "blow" against "guerrilla marketing" (whatever the heck that means), that leads me to have a fightening image of what a government would have to do in order for Dan T. to call it a "bad thing".
"Guerrilla marketing" is the term that the company that put out the, uh, devices call its strategy. And as this incident shows, the results of intentionally confusing people often are not so good.
The device wasn't bomb like, despite what the tardlets that make up the greater Boston Security Industrial Complex say.
tardlets?
That might just be my new favorite English word.
Hear, hear.
This story has been stretched and twisted beyond all reason before all the details are even in, just to score political points. Me, I'm waiting to hear what actually happened first. I'm even trying to contain my usual contempt for hipsters and anything associated with them in order to remain neutral.
As soon as Turner Broadcasting accepted responsibility instead of justly castigating Boston's overreation combined with the media's natural fear-mongering tendencies, Boston officials were pretty much off the hook for their failures. Boston officials should have been slammed and slammed HARD for their overreaction and they weren't. So in their minds they did nothing wrong, when in fact THEY were the ones in the wrong.
Never admit you're wrong. That's how you win cases.
Denny Crane.
Using that word in this context is really insensitive to people who actually suffer from mental fucktardation.
"Guerrilla marketing" rarely has anything to do with "confusing people" or anything nefarious whatsoever.
In other news, Jim Samples has been named head of the CNN non-fiction news division.
I was under the impression that government employees, by the very definition of being a government employee, are not capable of being to blame.
Unless they signed for something of value, then they are on the hook for the full amount in real cash money.
If it is your money, it is not an issue for them.
Reading about this make Oogh bored.
Bored.
BORED!
BORED!
Sorry, Oogh get angry when Oogh not have cigarette.
" And as this incident shows, the results of intentionally confusing people often are not so good."
except that every person in boston now knows a) what aqua teen hunger force is and b) that they have a movie coming out.
hell i know and i don't even like athf.
Mr. Gillespie's hatred of all things government has reached what may be a pathological level.
He needs to relax a little. Boston will go on, hopefully they'll learn from this situation. No long-term harm occurred.
when I briefly worked on Capitol Hill in a HOR office we got a press packet for "Precrime" legislation. I knew it was batshit crazy but I didn't realize it was a guerilla marketing campaign for "Minority Report" until I had read most of it.
On another note- can we cut out the "fucktard" ,ect. on the lead postings? Pretty soon reason is going to get banned at work.
It totally sucks that the tornadoes knocked this story off the air. I was so waiting for another press conference about hair. LOL.
You people saying Boston is stupid would be the same 20/20 hindsight idiots who would say "Obviously they were bombs" if someone put bombs on circuit boards with wires and batteries. They were attached to FREAKING BRIDGES and in HOSPITAL BASEMENTS. Retards. Just because "other cities didn't react" because they might not have noticed.
The thing that is so great about the Internet is that any d-bag that isn't in the least bit informed about what actually went on can pipe up with an idiotic, ill-informed opinion.
The people who think that the guys who put the signs up aren't to blame might want to wait until the facts come out. These guys were filming the police responding to these lite-brites without informing them of their mistake. Maybe they didn't intentionally incite a riot - but the certainly could have stopped it a lot sooner - that is criminal negligence.
To those that think that the ads were "perfectly legal"...you are wrong...is littering legal? you may debate whether it should be legal or not - or whether it should be enforced - but the fact that the act of putting these ads up on public and private property without consent and without proper permitting is illegal.
If you really take a moment to dig into some of the facts and think about it a bit -- you realize that the situation really isn't as preposterous as all of your arm-chair knee-jerk idiotic quarterbacking wants it to be.
The fact that the PCBs had attention-grabbing LEDs mounted on them would be the first not-a-bomb clue to anyone with a brain. Or maybe the Boston cops are just ahead of the curve. In the future, terrorists are going to plant bombs with flashing lights that spell out B-O-M-B, to deflect all attention. Yeah, that's the ticket.
In california, the marketers might have been arrested for not meeting RoHS standards. Now THAT would be serious.
but the fact that the act of putting these ads up on public and private property without consent and without proper permitting is illegal.
Yes, and if I drop a candy-bar wrapper in the street that too is illegal. So charge me with littering, not with implementing a bomb-threat hoax.
The terrorists have learned a valuable lesson from all of this--if they want to paralyze America they don't have to bother with plutonium or anthrax or any other dangerous substances. All they have to do is yell "BOO!"
Mr. Gillespie's hatred of all things government has reached what may be a pathological level.
He needs to relax a little. Boston will go on, hopefully they'll learn from this situation. No long-term harm occurred.
No long term harm?
The head of cartoon network lost his job. The guys who planted the signs may be prosecuted for some sort of felony. Ask those people about the long term harm to their income and possibly their freedom.
Stupidity shall hurt. And that's what these idiots are discovering.
Look, you can post all you want about how Boston over-reacted, but please remember:
They had been dealing with bomb scares.
Boston (Logan airport) was the origin of the whole 9-11 stuff. Stands to reason they might over-react.
And then in the middle of this, these idiots put up stuff under infrastructure that looks like it could be parts of a bomb, DID NOT TELL ANYONE IN THE ADMINISTRATION ABOUT IT and then expected them to laugh it off?
We also have NO IDEA if this intersected with any other warnings the FBI passed on to Boston about any other alerts they had had.
I have no sympathy for the perpetuators. They were dumb and deserved what they got. Maybe you people who post here should live a few years in places like London and Tokyo--you'd probably understand better. There are places where practical jokes are really, really OUT.
blogsblow, at worse, according your own post they are guilty of trespassing,I think it is a fair to say that Boston overreacted. None of the other cities had such a reaction, and don't tell me that no one in those cities didn't notice the ads until Boston flipped out. No I do not feel safer if this is how cities react to ads.
Criminal negligence? Yea, good luck to the prosecutors making that hyperbole stick. I will be shocked if the currents charges, bomb hoax, make it to trial, and it fair to say they will not be convicted of it. Doesn't all of that point to the fact that maybe, just maybe Boston didn't handle this well, or is the state always right no matter the result?
politicians in boston are lifetime appointments of the Democratic party machine. its probably the most thoroughly corrupted municipal government outside of new york. sorry, the fucktards will never leave.
"Guerrilla marketing" is the term that the company that put out the, uh, devices call its strategy. And as this incident shows, the results of intentionally confusing people often are not so good.
Intentionally confuse people? Please, Dan T. - even considering the fact that government dupes ARE people, it is not like this campaign confused The People. You are commiting the fallacy of vague meanings, or vague language. The only confused people were the overzealous bureaucrats, and not the ordinary folk.