You'd think that as a PolySci major I'd be all over this constitution debate... but, um... honestly, I'm gonna go with Aqua Teen Hunger Force. See, yesterday morning I sat at my computer eating breakfast and reading through Nick's post about the Constitution, formulating my responses as I went along... and then suddenly I was thrown off. This was the sentence that did it: However, this uproar over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force "guerrilla advertising" campaign is a huge black mark. Huh? See, I live overseas. I get my news from my customized Google News homepage, which I've set up to be pretty focused on international affairs, specifically those pertaining to Russia and Korea. While I do know what Aqua Teen Hunger Force is (courtesy of my most recent ex), the rest of that sentence - indeed the rest of the paragraph - made little sense to me. So of course, I had to google it and find out what the hell our buddy Nick was going on about.
For those of you who, like me, were clueless as to this whole nonsense, let me give you the run-down. The Adult Swim folks over at Cartoon Network hired a marketing agency, who in turn hired two dudes in their twenties to do some "guerrilla advertising" - neon, glowy thingies in the shape of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force character Ignignokt (a Mooninite - as in he lives on the Moon) were placed all over a whole bunch of cities, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. The idea was that people would see these random Ignignokt images and think, "Hey, I wanna go watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force." Or something. I can't imagine that in a sensible society the proliferation of this visually unappealing Mooninite would have done much to boost ratings. But apparently some of us no longer live in a sensible society.
For those of you who, like me, were clueless as to this whole nonsense, let me give you the run-down. The Adult Swim folks over at Cartoon Network hired a marketing agency, who in turn hired two dudes in their twenties to do some "guerrilla advertising" - neon, glowy thingies in the shape of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force character Ignignokt (a Mooninite - as in he lives on the Moon) were placed all over a whole bunch of cities, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. The idea was that people would see these random Ignignokt images and think, "Hey, I wanna go watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force." Or something. I can't imagine that in a sensible society the proliferation of this visually unappealing Mooninite would have done much to boost ratings. But apparently some of us no longer live in a sensible society.
One of the devices that shut down Boston
While Ignignokt popped up all over the place, the Bostonians were the ones to panic, frantically calling 911, while the local police force all but shut the city down. Apparently, the mayor of Boston said, "It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme." Well, mayor, the terrorists have just won. He's essentially saying that through September 10, 2001 this form of advertising would have been acceptable. Annoying and unsightly, perhaps, but acceptable. He's admitted that because of 9/11 he and the residents of the city now automatically view glowing cartoon characters as threats.
You can't let your lives be ruled by fear, people.
As an aside, this has turned into a marketing coup for Cartoon Network, even with the two million dollar fine Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay:
In one sweeping and inexpensive maneuver, Aqua Teen Hunger Force jumped to the top of search engines, blogs and news aggregators, in addition to garnering coverage from just about every major media source. Millions of people, who probably thought Adult Swim meant skinny dipping, may now tune into the Cartoon Network just to see what all the fuss is about. Compared to the estimated $2.6 million it will cost for thirty seconds of publicity during Sunday's Super Bowl, this phony bomb scare certainly got a lot more bang for the buck! [article here]
You can't let your lives be ruled by fear, people.
As an aside, this has turned into a marketing coup for Cartoon Network, even with the two million dollar fine Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay:
In one sweeping and inexpensive maneuver, Aqua Teen Hunger Force jumped to the top of search engines, blogs and news aggregators, in addition to garnering coverage from just about every major media source. Millions of people, who probably thought Adult Swim meant skinny dipping, may now tune into the Cartoon Network just to see what all the fuss is about. Compared to the estimated $2.6 million it will cost for thirty seconds of publicity during Sunday's Super Bowl, this phony bomb scare certainly got a lot more bang for the buck! [article here]
7 comments:
If you play with Lite-Brites, the terrorists will have won.
I understand the response of the Boston officials. It seems ridiculous in retrospect, but imagine if they had actually been bombs! People would have been irate if they knew that officials had knowledge of unknown flashing electronic objects placed strategically throughout the city's infrastructure and didn't go into emergency mode.
Melissa
Don't feel to bad about not knowing about this. I had no idea, either. Where was this news? I read the AP newswire all day, everyday. Maybe I missed something.
Anyway, the guerilla advertizing thing is usually pretty stupid, in my opinion. I mean, I had no idea what that thing was (the moon guy) and if I saw one, I wouldn't be any closer to figuring it out or making the leap to watch the show. I dunno. I think most of these campaigns play out like a big, public, inside joke.
ho-hum.
As for Boston's reaction, they could have used more tact. People really need to learn to balance public safety with public inconvenience/outrage.
I had never even HEARD of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, altho I now find that Frank is a long-time fan. I can see both sides of the Boston story, altho Frank sees it as a ridiculous Democratic reaction (which is equally ridiculous!)
The Saturday before this Boston thing happened I was wandering around New York at night and glanced up after crossing a major street to say, "hey, look! A Mooninite!" I'm not a great fan of ATHF, but enough of my friends are that I recognized the character as a minor one of the show. I also thought the Boston ones were funnier because the NY ones had neon "Censored" signs over their middle fingers. I personally thought this campaign was hilarious, in an inside joke kind of way.
That said, my many conversations with first responders lately has taught me that they're usually a little... well, stressed. They scare easily because they know too much about their own vulnerabilities, and they train every day to react to someone exploiting them.
I certainly don't believe these advertising guys should have been arrested and charged-- that seemed like a bit of guilty bitterness. But then, I like to relax and watch my cartoons in peace.
The first I heard of this "terror" scare was when I saw one of those super up to date news updates on cnn.com. It probably wasn't up for long, but they had a picture of the mooninite lite bright and a headline that said something like, "possible terrorism in Boston." I immediately thought, thats not terrorism, that's a mooninite, and he's flipping a bird. Ha, that's funny." Apparently the cnn office isn't crawling with 19 year old interns like my office or else one of them certainly would have said something before they put such a dumb ass headline on their website.
Anyway, besides noting that cnn.com sucks, I'd just like to say that I seriously doubt that real terrorists would have the somewhat immature sense of humor to have their cartoon bombs flip us off before they explode. The city of Boston completely overreacted. As usual, I'm with Jane and agree that the terrorists have already won because we're all living in fear, apparently. And btw, where are the interns at the mayor's office?
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