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Cartoon Network CEO Resigns Over Aqua Teen Scare
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Feb 09, 2007 09:35 PM
from the i-doubt-he's-laughing dept.
from the i-doubt-he's-laughing dept.
DesertBlade writes "Jim Samples, CEO of Cartoon Network, has resigned over the bomb scare prompted by the Aqua Teen marketing campaign. Turner (CN's parent company) ended up paying over 2 million in restitution to the city of Boston, and a man with a thirteen year record at the company has lost his job. Though many people have been citing this as 'the ultimate successful advertising campaign', there have obviously been real consequences from the incident." By virtue of the consequences of the campaign, was this now officially a bad idea? Or is your opinion that this is all far too much knee-jerking? Have your say in the comments.
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News: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt 804 comments
An anonymous reader writes "An ad campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force featuring the Mooninites Ignignot and Err caused major security concerns in Boston, MA when magnetic light displays were mistaken for possible bombs. The displays included one of Ignignot flipping the bird (as hard as he could), but Gov. Deval Patrick was not amused."
[+]
Entertainment: Aqua Teen Stunt Costs Turner and Agency $2M 557 comments
evw writes "The NYTimes reports that the Turner Broadcasting System and the ad agency responsible have reached a $2M settlement with the city of Boston and state and federal agencies that treated the light boards placed around the city as an act of terrorism (as covered earlier on /.) Half of the money is to cover direct costs associated with the response. The other $1M goes to 'goodwill funds' that will be used for response training and public outreach."
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Very disappointing overreaction (Score:5, Interesting)
America Is Officially Retarded (Score:5, Insightful)
The government has been very successful in scaring the public into thinking that the terrorism threat is real. The fact is, more people have died from lightning strikes in the past fifty years than from terrorist acts on American soil. This is fueled by the new status of new media as entertainment rather than information, which creates a sea of idiotic speculation before any facts are actually discovered. Witness the media trial of the man accused of Jon Benet's murder, or any of the number of bomb scares that have turned out to be simple security breaches.
There's no simple solution, but I think we as a society need to admit first that we have a problem.
Parallel Universe Fallacy (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Doin' a heck of a job, Bean Town (Score:5, Funny)
Good ol' boy politics, nothing ever changes. (Score:5, Insightful)
Did I miss anything?
Most overblown story ever (Score:5, Insightful)
These 38 lighted signs which were mistaken for bombs, never should have made the news. They did not look like bombs in any way shape or form, and had been in place for a considerable amount of time before people started going apeshit over them. People seem to fail to mention the "real" fake bombs which were planted in Boston on the same day (http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.
Security will never come through "preparedness" against an enemy which doesn't care whether it lives or dies. If terrorists/crazy dictators/serial killers/thugs want to kill you badly enough, they probably will. The only way we will ever be secure is to make people not want to harm us
This is what is meant by the expression... (Score:5, Insightful)
YTMND as always -- (Score:5, Funny)
Atlanta Reacted Better (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Buck Stops At The Top (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyways, I'm glad he took the fall for it, as he most likely has savings as opposed to the young guys who actually put up signs. Another sacrifice is made to the new State of paranoia.
Parent
Re:Buck Stops At The Top (Score:5, Insightful)
The irony is that this is just the sort of person you actually want at the top, and now he is gone.
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Re:Buck Stops At The Top (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Buck Stops At The Top (Score:5, Insightful)
We're spewing hippopotamus repellent and then claiming victory because there are no hippos. All 9/11 opened the door for was paranoia and jingoism.
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Stop Spreading Terror! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Stop Spreading Terror! (Score:5, Insightful)
So if Boston leaders are of the same caliber of leader as Jim Samples: They should accept some responsibility, admit they over reacted, and absolve Mr.Samples of this "heat" which has given him reason to step down. The marketing campaign was not at fault, Boston was.
Parent
Re:Stop Spreading Terror! (Score:5, Insightful)
I couldn't agree more. However, I take serious issue witih the first part of your comment...
This kind of attitude is exactly what is wrong with this country right now. Living in fear of LED signs is exactly what the terrorists want. They're called terrorists. They intend to terrorize us. If we can't walk down the street without freaking out when we see some blinking lights, they have achieved their objective.
Just because we're in a "Post 9/11 World" doesn't mean that we have to freak out and assume that everything out of the ordinary is a terrorist plot. Keep your wits about you, think critically, and respond accordingly. People running around freaking out is only going to make us less safe.
The government has been playing the game right out of the Cold War Play Book. An enemy attacks us, they obviously have a goal to conquer or destroy.
Unfortunately, terrorists aren't playing by the same set of rules. Their goal is to destabilize through fear. They launched a single attack almost 6 years ago, and the American response is "Oh my gosh, it's another attack!" We are terrified. We're scared of each other, of the government, and of some vague group on the other side of the world, who don't have the means to stage a traditional war, or even a single battle.
But hey, we're defending ourselves from terrorism, even if it means scaring all of our civilians into believing anything may be the next attack, and reinforcing the idea that the next attack is coming, even though there is no need for a next attack, because the first one is STILL doing it's job.
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Re:Buck Stops At The Top (Score:5, Insightful)
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It happened because it's Boston (Score:5, Insightful)
But other than causing 9/11, what else is Boston known for?
Well, there's always wasting billions of federal tax dollars to bury a highway to improve the city skyline [wikipedia.org], which lead to
crushing a woman [wikipedia.org] when three-ton ceiling tiles that had been glued to the ceiling fell.
Apparently Boston wasted billions of federal dollars, only to glue three-ton concrete ceiling tiles to their tunnel.
If you want to look at government waste and horrible mismanagement, look no further than Boston. The only reason this happened is because Boston is run by incompetent idiots. The part 9/11 had with this is that 9/11 is Boston's most well known failure, one that they're not eager to repeat.
Parent
No (Score:5, Insightful)
They won't be leaving fucking light-brites at the side of the road.
Some things just aren't plausible.
Parent
Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)
It would be a grave error in judgement to confuse those of us who fear extremists in our governments more than we fear extremists a thousand miles away as merely narcissistic.
Parent
Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)
Having a child is the best reason to be cavalier about this. The world is full of risks, and this particular risk (terrorist litebrite bombs) is well on the "might as well worry about being hit by a meteorite" end of the risk spectrum. Yet, tour child is watching your reactions and noting your opinions in order to develop his or her own sense of reasonable.
Furthermore, your child will eventually be living under the heel of the authorities -- the same authorities who are subconsciously but quickly realizing how much control they can take due to incidents like this... and how much fun it is to control others.
So take care when you are tempted to demand a padded world for your child. That kind of safety, at that price, is not a blessing, will not make them usefully safer, and will not cause them to develop fortitude and strength of character.
Parent
Re:Buck Stops At The Top (Score:5, Insightful)
Praise Allah, the batteries were not even connected and the infidels shrieked as if they were set afire with fuel.
Parent
Re:Buck Stops At The Top (Score:5, Insightful)
I was never suspicious of a Hello Kitty doll, but now that I've chosen to be suspicious of it, I'm doing my part! In fact, cars explode on the streets of Iraq every day, so now I call 911 everytime I see a parked car. Yet, for some reason, I'm being blamed with clogging the system full of rhetoric and empty false alarms. I just don't get it. Cars explode way more often than Hello Kitty dolls, but my vigilent attitude is not being appreciated!
I love Americans, truely, but this is one particular case wher I am absolutely thrilled that I live in a country in which you can't score political points for making a mountain out of a mole hill. Its getting to the point where you can make yourself look good by selling creative, tangential, and obtuse terrorist threats rather than workmanlike every day global occurances that kill and maim dozens to hundreds of people at a time.
You really have to give the 9/11 atrocity commiters some credit. Crash a few planes, and inspire scenarios of exploding C4-laden Hello Kitty dolls. I mean what the fuck, even domestic bombers know that letters, pipes, and cars is really all you need to be successful. If you want to kill lots of people, creativity is the domain of comic books, not reality.
Parent
Re:They should've given police a heads-up (Score:5, Insightful)
In a post-Hitler world, should we allow just any idiot with a radical idea to speak freely?
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Re:They should've given police a heads-up (Score:5, Insightful)
This exact same public advertising campaign took place in nine other cities with enough brain cells to force a fart out of their asses, and not rampantly overreact to OMG!!!! PINK PONIES FLIPPIN' ME THE BOMB PACK BIRD!!1111 In fact, they had enough brains not to react at all.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_Teen_Hunger_For
The Boston PD and its authorities are Proof #1 of Einstein's theory that "two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Parent