Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 5:09 pm
EVEN MORE BREAKING: Outdoor Marketing Campaign of Mass Destruction!
It gets better. This afternoon's Mooninite invasion of Boston, it is now being reported, consisted of "magnetic lights that were part of an outdoor marketing campaign for an adult cartoon" (that being Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force).
According to an apology from Turner Broadcasting, posted at boston.com, "[The lights] have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia." So, thanks for jumping on the threat right away, security folks.
On Fox News, The Big Story with John Gibson is currently discussing the legal implications of the publicity devices of mass destruction. Could Turner Broadcasting (a corporate sibling of TIME) have violated a law? Says Fox judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, "If these were legitimately placed advertisements, they did not break any law... Here's the test under Massachusetts law: would a reasonable person looking at that device reasonably conclude that it was intended to cause substantial bodily harm or injury to property? It depends on the mind of the observer." Indeed. I understand the North Koreans are working on a billboard so large, it could level a city.
Somewhere in a Turner office, I suspect someone is getting fired. Or getting a giant raise.
6 Comments to “EVEN MORE BREAKING: Outdoor Marketing Campaign of Mass Destruction!”
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About Tuned In
James Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Tuned In, the blog version, is about the stuff we used to call "TV," whether it's in your living room, on your computer or -- once the networks figure out the technology and line up the advertisers -- in your dreams themselves. Read more
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 9:29 pm
I think it's despicable that one Turner subsidiary creates a mass panic for cheap publicity and then another (CNN) also profits by breaking the story. Aren't there supposed to be journalistic ethical guidelines against news outlets manufacturing their own news? Doesn't that extend to the whole corporate enterprise? I think it would be fitting if the FCC temporarily suspended the licenses of both networks for a week or two. After all, if any publicity is good publicity, both networks need to take a big hit for the punishment to fit the crime. A couple of weeks of dead air should do the trick.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 11:03 pm
I think if Marty actually believes that one branch of Turner has any idea what the other is doing, he has a far, far higher opinion of the company than most of its investors do.
Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 1:58 am
There's an epic battle approaching: common sense versus hysteria/political correctness. Common sense always loses that battle.
Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 4:34 am
James, you seem to get it, and you at least have some sort of platform to talk back to all these self-important hacks, so please get this out there: the government and media are both being incredibly self-serving in even calling this a "hoax" or an attempt to CAUSE mass panic. They caused the mass panic. Why can't they just admit that and move on?
And frankly, the idea that this isn't funny is just wrong and ridiculous. It's very, very funny. And the fact that morons like Boston's mayor and the governor got so huffy about it makes it MORE funny. I wish these people were capable of just laughing at themselves for overreacting. It's no one's fault really. But instead, they have to save face, and so they will no doubt demand millions as well as charging two guys with felonies because THEY blew it.
Apparently, we now live in a society where anything the least bit odd or out of place needs to be presumptively put under a blast hood and detonated with explosives.
Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 7:00 am
plunge,
I'll get right on that. But first I need to dismantle my kids' Lite Brite before the neighbors call Homeland Security.
Monday, February 19, 2007 at 1:28 am
Clearly we need to search the Earth for WLBs: Weapons of Lite Brite.