Posted by: Captain Haddock February 1, 2007
Login in to Rate this Post:
0 
? 
?
True. Generation gap responsible for bomb scare, eh? :)
Check this out: - http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/02/01/marketing_gambit_exposes_a_wide_generation_gap/?p1=MEWell_Pos3
Marketing gambit exposes a wide generation gap
A graphic from the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim website showed the Err character from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" that was depicted on some of the devices found yesterday.
By Michael Levenson and Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | February 1, 2007
Todd Vanderlin, a 22-year-old design student, had just left Lucky's lounge in South Boston two weeks ago when he spotted what looked like an alien glowing on the side of a bridge. He pulled out his digital camera, photographed the illuminated plastic figure, and posted the images on his blog.
"I knew it was art, and I knew it was part of the Adult Swim ads, because I saw a billboard for the same thing," said Vanderlin, referring to a series of cartoons on cable television. "I see it in New York all the time."
But yesterday, a subway worker less attuned to the latest in underground marketing techniques called the police after spotting one of the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" cartoon characters on an overpass in Charlestown. The terrorism scare that followed touched off a massive response from police. When it was discovered that the electronic boards were only ads for a cartoon, serious condemnation flowed from Washington and Boston.
The episode exposed a wide generational gulf between government officials who reacted as if the ads might be bombs and 20-somethings raised on hip ads for Snapple, Apple, and Google who instantly recognized the images for what they were: a viral marketing campaign.
Among many in the young generation, reaction to the scare was smirking. "Repeat after me, authorities. L-E-D. Not I-E-D. Get it?" one 29-year-old blogger from Malden wrote on his website, contrasting light emitting diodes with improvised explosive devices.
Elected officials said there is no room for battery-powered contraptions on bridges and overpasses in a post Sept. 11 world.
"Scaring an entire region, tying up the T and major roadways, and forcing first responders to spend 12 hours chasing down trinkets instead of terrorists is marketing run amok," said US Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden. "It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt."
The ads were the latest incarnation of viral marketing, an advertising technique that is exploding in popularity as a way to reach younger consumers inured to the effects of traditional commercials. Like viruses, the ads are intended to spread on their own, creating word-of-mouth buzz by cropping up in unexpected places outdoors and on the Internet.
The company behind the ads for "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" was New York-based Interference Inc., whose chief executive officer, Sam Travis Ewen, was recently named one of Brandweek Magazine's Guerrilla Marketers of the Year. Ewen, who is in his 30s, has also put people on subways to brag about financial advisers and sent models into bars to sit with packs of cigarettes, waiting for someone to ask for a smoke.
Jamie Tedford -- senior vice president of media and marketing innovations at Arnold Worldwide, a Boston-based ad agency -- said there have been recent marketing campaigns that backfired. He cited Wal-Mart's decision to post a blog about a fictitious couple driving cross-country to different Wal-Mart stores. The company did not disclose that it had created the blog, angering some buyers.
But Tedford said he could not recall a recent marketing campaign involving objects that were mistaken for bombs or any campaign that had that caused a citywide panic.
"You'd almost have to go back to 'War of the Worlds,' " he said, referring to the famous 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles. "We would all agree that this has crossed a line."
Turner Broadcasting System Inc., which broadcasts "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" on its Cartoon Network, could have saved itself the controversy by warning local authorities this was a marketing campaign, Tedford said.
Boston was one of 10 cities around the nation where the guerilla ads appeared, but nowhere else did they cause security concerns and set a city on edge.
"The hardcore watchers of that show would know it's a character, but the majority of people in these cities do not know that," Tedford said. "Turner has failed on the disclosure issue."
Turner executives said they did not forewarn local authorities, because they never imagined the campaign would cause alarm. "It was not our intent to do anything but get attention for a television series, period," Phil Kent, chairman and chief executive of Turner, said in an interview last evening.
That was apparent to many young consumers. After Vanderlin posted the images on his blog, Ewen shot him an e-mail: "I am glad you got one of the adult swim signs; there are others out there as well so keep looking up," Ewen wrote. He added he hoped people would take them as souvenirs.
Vanderlin, a student at Parson School of Design in New York City, said he was stunned to see police bomb squads swoop in and remove the characters.
"It's so not threatening -- it's a Lite-Brite," he said, referring to a popular children's game. "I don't understand how they could be terrified. I would understand if it was a bunch of circuits blinking but it wasn't. . . . It was clearly a design."
A graphic from the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim website showed the Err character from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" that was depicted on some of the devices found yesterday.
By Michael Levenson and Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | February 1, 2007
Todd Vanderlin, a 22-year-old design student, had just left Lucky's lounge in South Boston two weeks ago when he spotted what looked like an alien glowing on the side of a bridge. He pulled out his digital camera, photographed the illuminated plastic figure, and posted the images on his blog.
"I knew it was art, and I knew it was part of the Adult Swim ads, because I saw a billboard for the same thing," said Vanderlin, referring to a series of cartoons on cable television. "I see it in New York all the time."
But yesterday, a subway worker less attuned to the latest in underground marketing techniques called the police after spotting one of the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" cartoon characters on an overpass in Charlestown. The terrorism scare that followed touched off a massive response from police. When it was discovered that the electronic boards were only ads for a cartoon, serious condemnation flowed from Washington and Boston.
The episode exposed a wide generational gulf between government officials who reacted as if the ads might be bombs and 20-somethings raised on hip ads for Snapple, Apple, and Google who instantly recognized the images for what they were: a viral marketing campaign.
Among many in the young generation, reaction to the scare was smirking. "Repeat after me, authorities. L-E-D. Not I-E-D. Get it?" one 29-year-old blogger from Malden wrote on his website, contrasting light emitting diodes with improvised explosive devices.
Elected officials said there is no room for battery-powered contraptions on bridges and overpasses in a post Sept. 11 world.
"Scaring an entire region, tying up the T and major roadways, and forcing first responders to spend 12 hours chasing down trinkets instead of terrorists is marketing run amok," said US Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden. "It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt."
The ads were the latest incarnation of viral marketing, an advertising technique that is exploding in popularity as a way to reach younger consumers inured to the effects of traditional commercials. Like viruses, the ads are intended to spread on their own, creating word-of-mouth buzz by cropping up in unexpected places outdoors and on the Internet.
The company behind the ads for "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" was New York-based Interference Inc., whose chief executive officer, Sam Travis Ewen, was recently named one of Brandweek Magazine's Guerrilla Marketers of the Year. Ewen, who is in his 30s, has also put people on subways to brag about financial advisers and sent models into bars to sit with packs of cigarettes, waiting for someone to ask for a smoke.
Jamie Tedford -- senior vice president of media and marketing innovations at Arnold Worldwide, a Boston-based ad agency -- said there have been recent marketing campaigns that backfired. He cited Wal-Mart's decision to post a blog about a fictitious couple driving cross-country to different Wal-Mart stores. The company did not disclose that it had created the blog, angering some buyers.
But Tedford said he could not recall a recent marketing campaign involving objects that were mistaken for bombs or any campaign that had that caused a citywide panic.
"You'd almost have to go back to 'War of the Worlds,' " he said, referring to the famous 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles. "We would all agree that this has crossed a line."
Turner Broadcasting System Inc., which broadcasts "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" on its Cartoon Network, could have saved itself the controversy by warning local authorities this was a marketing campaign, Tedford said.
Boston was one of 10 cities around the nation where the guerilla ads appeared, but nowhere else did they cause security concerns and set a city on edge.
"The hardcore watchers of that show would know it's a character, but the majority of people in these cities do not know that," Tedford said. "Turner has failed on the disclosure issue."
Turner executives said they did not forewarn local authorities, because they never imagined the campaign would cause alarm. "It was not our intent to do anything but get attention for a television series, period," Phil Kent, chairman and chief executive of Turner, said in an interview last evening.
That was apparent to many young consumers. After Vanderlin posted the images on his blog, Ewen shot him an e-mail: "I am glad you got one of the adult swim signs; there are others out there as well so keep looking up," Ewen wrote. He added he hoped people would take them as souvenirs.
Vanderlin, a student at Parson School of Design in New York City, said he was stunned to see police bomb squads swoop in and remove the characters.
"It's so not threatening -- it's a Lite-Brite," he said, referring to a popular children's game. "I don't understand how they could be terrified. I would understand if it was a bunch of circuits blinking but it wasn't. . . . It was clearly a design."