jorgelito

Hey, extra points if you can sing the song....."Lite, Brite......."

Bittertalker

I’ve been putting some thought into this topic for the past few days. It wasn’t a bomb scare or hoax, because just linguistically speaking that would imply they were attempting to pass the Mooninites off as bombs. In reality these "bombs" are glorified Lite-Brites and a Lite-Brite has never hurt anyone (well unless you swallowed some of the small pieces.) The news is calling it a failed guerilla marketing campaign, but technically speaking since they’ve been talking about the show and the upcoming movie practically nonstop since Wednesday afternoon, I’ll clearly call it a successful marketing campaign. The primary focus of any and all marketing campaigns is for the product in question to be thought about, talked about and etc. The marketing campaign included ten major US cities, such as Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, and Los Angeles. What makes Boston so different? I mean, if these things were in nine other cities for around two weeks, why did the city of Boston react in the way they did? I was watching the news yesterday, and they said there was some fifty in the city of New York alone compared to the thirty-eight in Boston. In this post-9/11 world why didn’t New York react? If not first, than at all? Why didn’t the other nine cities? Why did Boston react?

ngdawg

"sorry, that's not a hair question"
....that about sums this fiasco up....

__________________
Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

splck

Hey Boston.........BOO!

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nice line eh?

Willravel

Aww, give Boston a break. They lost to Tampa and Cleveland, allowing the Cardinals to win. Hey, remember when Ozzie Smith was the Cardinal to watch?

MSD

I disagree with your presumption. Swallowing the small pieces never hurt me, therefore Lite Brites are 100% harmless, not 99% as you claimed.

A pipe bomb had been found in a public building earlier in the day and everyone was a bit on edge. The immediate response (checking that these things weren't bombs) was entirely appropriate. The subsequent reactions, arresting the advertisers and demanding that the FCC revoke Turner Broadcasting's license, were not.

Turn on the magical shining light!

SecretMethod70

Actually, I believe it is "Lite Brite, Lite Brite, turn on the magic of colored light!"

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

MSD

They're both lines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huat89z2WrA
Just because you're older than me doesn't mean I don't remember it, too.

SecretMethod70

LMAO! Oh man, that was disturbingly fun to watch that commercial. I only wish I had remembered the rest of the song beforehand...I knew there was more!

EDIT: You sneaky person, editing your comment after I already responded! You're right, they are both in the commercial. I was too busy laughing at the video the first time I watched it to notice

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

rockzilla

Viral marketing campaign or terrorist plot, I still won't go see the movie.

SecretMethod70

Yeah, but did you ever actually play with one?

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

analog

Hehe... I used to have one as a kid... now I want to go make one of those Mooninite things for myself. lol

Bittertalker

Actually there were two fake pipe bombs discovered in a medical center allegedly planted by a disgruntled former hospital employee, and it was proven early in the day that incident was completely unrelated to the 38 devices planted through out the city. I can understand in the sake of safety one must act as if they were related until all the facts are in, but after discovering the realistic looking pipe bombs were fake and destroying the first of the mooninites the panic was still there.

If anything comes out of this incident, I think if ever there were to be a problem, as in the case of a terrorist attack, the city of Boston has a good response time… and in hindsight this situation could be seen as a safety drill.

Slims

Apparently they informed law enforcement ahead of time about the add campaign and the location of the adds.

Also, this same campaign took place in a bunch of major cities (including new york) without incident.

__________________
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence

cyrnel

Officials trying to look wrong instead of stupid?

Boston MA, a.k.a. Broward County North.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

ngdawg

Uh...then why is your avatar glowing?

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Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

oldtimer

I don't think it was successful at all. The people who don't know about the show won't care to find out. And if by any chance they do, they'll quickly regret it and not trust ads from them again.

Didn't know that.

Boston is boring as hell, for starters. At least out of the select group you named earlier.

I can only speak for New York as I've seen those Truth ads like a 1,000 times. I guess New York is used to that type of thing and they must have lots of ads up everywhere anyway. Plus, I'm sure they ask the cities permission before doing those kinds of things unlike TBS, especially for the body parts Truth ad.

Truth ads: Some of them are cool, some of them are incredibly annoying [Like that guy w/ the ugly dreds and glasses talking about 'sleep' in a matress store or m&ms and jogging] to me and some are a digusting eyesore like the 'bodyparts in the trashcan' but not the murder scene chalk outlines. Believe me I can take a heavier dose of death and dismerberment than the average person. But no one is ever fully desentizied. Except for coroner's and their assistants and other unmentionable sickos, you know who you are.

About Aqua Teen Hunger Force... that show is stupid, actually its more than that. There's no excuse for shows that dumb to exist. A lot of Adult Swim's shows are complete crap. Which leads to me to believe the staff of that whole thing are crazy. Sealab 2020, only one funny episode to me there where they yell this one phrase over and over again. Oh and there's worse shows than ATHF on there don't get me wrong. When it 1st actually came out, I found the idea of fast food doing that hilarious but then it just got incredibly stupid and I'm not a nerd! So if it's too stupid for someone who's not a nerd it must be awfully nosensical.

The moonites tho, were funny maybe the 1st time. Never really followed them after that.

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Slowly but surely getting over the loss of TFP v. 3.0.
Where the hell am I?....
Showering once a month does not make you a better person.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Toaster126

CNN explained what the character was, what the show was, and what network the show was on.

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"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand)
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

JustDisGuy

You hold your brethren in much higher esteem than I do.

99% of people will react as you suggest. 1% will not. 1% will find they really, really like whatever the hell these guys are selling, and they will buy it. When you consider that it's 1% of several tens of millions of people, it adds up. Even if it's only 0.1%, it adds up. In the end, all the media coverage pretty much boils down to real-world spam. Just goes to prove there's no such thing as bad publicity...

oldtimer

That's true. But how many people really watch CNN, youth wise? Unless they're looking for the funny public statement video of the guys on YouTube/Google and find the CNN vid. Don't know if they have it saved on CNN.com/pipeline either. But it was a one/two day max event...

Yeah, that 1% [or more] is true. Can't deny that. Was just speaking in general tho but I replied pretty fast so excuse the implied 100%. If you have seen any of the shows on that network, you wouldn't blame me. So, give me the benefit of the doubt. People can watch whatever they want... but if they're watching that...

Several tens of millions is being too generous, btw. Max, tens of thousands. I don't know where to find actual TV nielsen ratings. Futurama, Robot Chicken & Family Guy are the only ones holding it down over there. Take those away and they're screwed.

Actually there is... but I couldn't give any great examples off the bat. But sure, there are some pretty good ones out there. Like the Screech porn incident. You know, heard it, shrugged, and that was the end of it. Not like I stayed up all night on Kazaa/Limewire trying to get a glimpse of the guy doing a chick. That cliche of 'there's no such thing as bad publicity' has certainly wore its cliche-ness out.

One more: Don't forget about T.O. in the football world. I just about hate his guts and all that wasn't media doing - but they certainly did help make him more annoying. If it's true, you'll evaluate what you see and hear for yourself. True colors always show up sooner or later.

__________________
Slowly but surely getting over the loss of TFP v. 3.0.
Where the hell am I?....
Showering once a month does not make you a better person.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Toaster126

Yeah, lots of negative publicity is good for the person involved, but it's not good in every case. For example, the whole Oprah beef scare thing. It didn't have a net help for the beef industry to have the Jesus of the soccer moms talk shit on the industry.

__________________
"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand)
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

Toaster126

Yeah, lots of negative publicity is good for the person involved, but it's not good in every case. For example, the whole Oprah beef scare thing. It didn't have a net help for the beef industry to have the Jesus of the soccer moms talk shit on the industry.

__________________
"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand)
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

JustDisGuy

Love the sig Toaster! Tip o' the hat to Analog for writing it.

Oldtimer - I'd be real interested in some sort of quantitative analysis of just exactly how many people heard about Aqua Teen Hunger Force as a result of that campaign. I'd bet Turner broadcasting saved a ton of money by paying for the scare over what it would have cost them to buy that level of publicity in the traditional manner. Having said that - I don't care enough to actually do the math... <grin>

Just one more thing - Screech porn. Didn't see it, didn't care to, but it *was* the first time I had thought about the guy since I'd last accidentally seen him maybe ten years prior. If he'd played his cards right afterward, he probably could've got a reality tv show or something similarly inane and made a buck or two off it. Just because he didn't doesn't mean he couldn't have benefited from the negative publicity.

To be honest, what really causes me concern is that the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (aka: FUD) that the American ruling class is slathering across the continent is starting to slop over the borders. I hate to see the freedoms that our forefathers on both sides of the border fought and died for further eroded.