Wednesday, January 31, 2007 |
17:06 - Good thing I brought my Gorgatron repellent
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_re_us/suspicious_devices;_ylt=AvwJj3QJDNLK
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Yow. If the Cartoon Network CEO was really "out of town", as the stories covering this debacle suggest, he's gonna have a fun time cleaning house when he gets back. Quite apart from the legal implications of freaking people out over what looked like a bunch of bombs on bridges and subway tunnels, it costs a lot of money to shut down infrastructure and mobilize bomb squads to clear it all up. Turner's gonna be getting a few invoices at the very least.
"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said.
Yyyyyeah. Sorry you misinterpreted these bomb-looking things on bridges as bombs. What are you people, stupid?
Yeesh. Much as I enjoy ATHF, and much as this will likely ramp up public interest in it just as much as the "Booby Traps. Cockpits." billboards for Venture Brothers did a year or two ago, this was a pretty dumb move.
Interestingly, though, it was only ever going to be a successful stunt if it became news. A bunch of Lite-Brite pictures of Inignokt and Err? How is some random person driving through the subway and seeing that weird image going to make the mental leap to "Oh, that looks like a show I'll want to watch tonight at midnight"? The only way this could drum up any new viewership is if news agencies picked it up and explained what the images were supposed to be and how to link it to your TV. So in other words, they were banking on the stunt blowing up in their faces. Apparently.
That said: the guys at Cartoon Brew are understandably peeved at Cartoon Network lately for padding its lineup with live-action and almost-live-action material, and so their take on the incident isn't that unexpected:
It seems quite appropriate that the bomb squad would have to be called out to dispose of an Adult Swim series.
Ouch. Now, that would be fair if this were a stunt for 12 oz. Mouse or Perfect Hair Forever or Stroker & Hoop or something. But ATHF is one of the anchor shows that's actually been consistently funny and successful in the post-Brak age. I still have my doubts about stuff like Frisky Dingo and Metalocalypse and Squidbillies, and the confrontational and tendentious entries like Moral Orel and The Boondocks are too tiresome to sit through. But c'mon, guys: ATHF is the bomb.
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