This is truly unbelievable. A buddy in Boston just sent me this email:
â??Did you hear about the marketing disaster in Boston today?â?
Google News turned up this article. Iâ??ll give you a teaser:
â??Several illuminated electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger.â?
I didnâ??t want to write about this. Marketing campaign and homeland security should never appear together in the same sentence. Iâ??m at a complete loss.
So instead of giving the Cartoon Network the satisfaction of all the free publicity theyâ??ll get out of this: I suggest a 180-degree alternative. Boycott the station. Cancel your package. Donâ??t go to see the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. All of which applies to Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner as well.
Send a message that this is not what marketing is about. Let the Cartoon Network know that completely irresponsible marketing is not okay. If theyâ??re going to practice it, let them pay the price.
As for Interference, the networkâ??s agency, the article had this to say:
“Interference Inc. had no immediate comment. A woman who answered the phone at the New York-based firm’s offices Wednesday afternoon said the firm’s CEO was out of town and would not be able to comment until Thursday.”
No comment? How about, â??Sorry.â?
Turner, Time, Cartoon Network, Interference â?? is anyone listening?
Related stuff:
â?¢ Here are some lessons learned from other marketing disasters.
â?¢ Follow some really dumb moments in gaming, including Acclaimâ??s mindless stunts.
â?¢ Top 10 Successful Marketing Stunts from Entrepreneur.com.
â?¢ UPDATE: Andy weighs in and I couldn’t agree more with his opinion on this one.
â?¢ UPDATE 2: More thoughts: CK, the Convergence Culture Consortium, Beyond Madison Avenue.
â?¢ Final UPDATE (I promise): The whole panic could’ve been averted if the Boston authorities would’ve just read some blogs. Good dig, Ann!
February 1st, 2007 at 11:28 am
IT would seem to me that not only was this an irresponsible campaign but also an unsuccessful one.
The article states “There were no reports from police Wednesday of residents in the other nine cities spotting similar devices.”
Either they were spotted but not really “noticed” or they were just completely unnoticed.
Lousy idea, lousy execution. big bucks down the toilet no doubt.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Umm… are YOU cancelling your cable package?
February 1st, 2007 at 10:38 pm
First of all Mark, thanks for the kind words and the slew of traffic they sent my way. Secondly, an ever bigger thank you for the pseudominar in stunt marketing. This post and its many updates is essentially a “Stunt Marketing 101″; the good, bad, ugly and stupid. Should be required reading…especially for those two putzes.
February 1st, 2007 at 10:40 pm
P.S. It should’ve read “pseudo-seminar,” but I kinda like the sound of “pseudominar.”
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:08 am
Jamie: I agree. However, if you read Ann’s post, you’ll see that some of these light boxes were found in other cities about two weeks ago and that one or two were up on ebay as a result. Not enough to call the campaign a success, though.
Alan: I suppose you’re thinking, “Well, that’s easy to say.” And you’re right. But the only reason I can’t back up my words with action is because I don’t live in the U.S. and the Cartoon Network is not available here. I’ll double check to see if Aqua Teen Hunger Force is broadcast up here and get back to you.
Andy: Thanks for the kind words, Andy, but I’d really only like to comment on my cool 1970s-style haircut.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Mark, you’ve got better things to do in Canada than trying to find an American ‘toon that you do not intend to watch. You don’t want to cancel your cable subscription. And I don’t want you to cancel your subscription. And I don’t think that you really wanted me to cancel my cable subscription.
You initial post was O’Reilly-esuqe (paraphrasing here):”Send them a message! Boycott! Make them pay! Give ‘em hell!” But later you settled down and decided that you “couldn’t agree more” with Andy who wrote, “I think everybody’s kinda overreacting and should pop a Valium or three. Then (instead of calling for a boycott) Andy says, “I’m going to sleep.” I am assuming that Andy’s cable was still connected when he woke up the next morning.
Mark, in your initial post you wrote, “I didn’t want to write about this.” You shouldn’t have.
You also wrote, “I’m at a complete loss.” But then you FOUND the words to call for me to cancel my cable subscription.
You wrote, “Marketing campaign and homeland security should never appear together in the same sentence.” I read the Google News article that you referenced. Those terms did not appear in the same sentence until YOU put them together in YOUR sentence.”
I do agree with your (initial) conclusion that someone from Turner and/or Time and/or the Cartoon Network and/or Interference should have apologized. (Interference’s website offers an apology today. You see, you’ve just got to give the lawyers some time to do what it is that they do.) But Mark, calling for an apology means that you should be ready to forgive when said apology is offered. And when it is offered don’t you want to be able to learn of it while watching CNN and then don’t you want to be able to calmly say to yourself, “It’s okay you sophomoric hijinx cartoon marketing knuckleheads. I forgive you.” And then don’t you want to be able to switch over to ESPN for some Habs highlights?
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Alan: Point taken. Lesson learned. Your thoughts really make me think about the responsibility I have as a blogger.
That said, and perhaps I didn’t craft my thoughts as precisely as need be, I was referring more about canceling a subscription to the network itself and not a cable package in its entirety. Seriously, who could live without cable/satellite TV? I know I couldn’t. And I suspect that you couldn’t either.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment and hope that you will continue to read.