File Under: Very Bad Marketing Decisions
Okay, so this morning the orange line in Boston was tied up and delayed for some reason that was not clear. Riders were being routed inefficiently and ineffectively by too few MBTA employees. I did not think that anything could top (bottom?) the CTA for its lack of communication during service interuptions, but the MBTA did it today for sure. Mid-morning, it was announced that there had been a bomb-looking thing--possibly an improvised explosive device--magnetically fixed to the underside of a bridge over which I-93 runs, right above the Sullivan Square station. The bomb squad handled it. They also handled the nine other devices being found on other bridges around the city. The Charles was closed to boat traffic and other bridges and roads were closed to cars, trains, and buses.
All of this activity, all of these thankfully minor inconveniences, all of these resources, and all of this fear? A GUERILLA AD CAMPAIGN FOR A TURNER NETWORK CARTOON.
Turner apologized, calling it part of a big "whoopsy." A whoopsy in ten cities including New York and Chicago.
This is neither cool nor funny, and I'd like to see a lot of lawsuits and fired executives. I don't care if the devices are innocuous and I don't care if the ads were for the determined "cool" Aqua Teen Hunger Force. We live in an age of terror and if our government wants us to be their eyes and ears, maybe cable companies ought to, I dunno, not emulate IEDs in their ad campaigns. It's over the line.
All of this activity, all of these thankfully minor inconveniences, all of these resources, and all of this fear? A GUERILLA AD CAMPAIGN FOR A TURNER NETWORK CARTOON.
Turner apologized, calling it part of a big "whoopsy." A whoopsy in ten cities including New York and Chicago.
This is neither cool nor funny, and I'd like to see a lot of lawsuits and fired executives. I don't care if the devices are innocuous and I don't care if the ads were for the determined "cool" Aqua Teen Hunger Force. We live in an age of terror and if our government wants us to be their eyes and ears, maybe cable companies ought to, I dunno, not emulate IEDs in their ad campaigns. It's over the line.
posted by Nora Rocket at 5:47 PM
2 Comments:
Um... You're being ironical, right Robin? Dude these guys are awesome... They hung up LED things, that's harmless...
They're not awesome, dude, and I'm not being ironical. Weaknesses of internet communication aside, you'll know when I'm getting my irony on.
Firstly, I posted this in a pretty high dudgeon: I've since mellowed and gained some perspective on it, and I think my initial reaction was a little...reactionary.
Anyway, these guys are not awesome. They're not artists; they got hired for this. They're pretty media savvy and they don't deserve to take the fall, but they're not some pair of graffiti artists reclaiming the streets--they were bankrolled by Turner.
I think the BPD reacted appropriately to the first device. I think that until they brought it down from under the bridge (LEDs were off during the day, so it looked less like a toy and more like a bristly device that the rubes of Boston might not construe correctly--and it's pretty dark at Sullivan Square under I-93, or haven't you been lately?) they had reason to believe it was not a toy. They discovered it was a lite brite midday, and Turner didn't fess up until the early evening, leaving the cops to react the whole afternoon the only way they knew how: over.
So while I think maybe the BPD might have exercised a little more...well, not discretion but some kind of informed savvy given the nature of the device *once they discovered the nature of the device*, I think it's a little spurious to think that everyone perceives the same level of threat.
It isn't fair that the government tries to keep everyone scared enough to rat on their neighbours and fellow commuters; but it's also not fair for a big ass corporation to clothe itself in street art and then hang its contracted equipment mounters out to dry. Boston might be acting now like its widdle feewings got hoit, and going after whomever, but I still think they had to treat that first device at Sullivan like a credible threat.
My feelings be mixed, as you can tell.
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