Cartoon Network Head Resigns After Boston Bomb Scare.

[Speedball]

Head of Cartoon Network Resigns Following Marketing Stunt That Brought Out Boston Bomb Squad
02-09-2007 5:45 PM
By HARRY R. WEBER, AP Business Writer

ATLANTA -- The head of the Cartoon Network resigned Friday following a marketing stunt that caused a terrorism scare in Boston and led police to shut down bridges and send in the bomb squad. The announcement of Jim Samples' resignation came in an internal memo to Cartoon Network staff members.

"It's my hope that my decision allows us to put this chapter behind us and get back to our mission of delivering unrivaled original animated entertainment for consumers of all ages," said Samples, who was the network's general manager and executive vice president.

He said he regretted what had happened and felt "compelled to step down, effective immediately, in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch."

Dozens of blinking electronic devices showing a crude cartoon character had been planted in 10 cities as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign to promote the cartoon "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," but when Boston authorities got a series of calls about the devices on Jan. 31, they feared the circuit boards with wires could be explosives.

Cartoon Network's corporate parent acknowledged a few hours into the scare that the boards were harmless and part of a marketing move.
On Monday, Turner Broadcasting and an advertising agency involved agreed to pay $2 million in compensation for the emergency response the devices had spurred in Boston. The Cartoon Network is a division of Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting, whose parent is media giant Time Warner Inc.

The agreement between Turner, Interference Inc. and several state and local agencies resolves any potential civil or criminal claims against the two companies.

Two men who authorities say were paid to place the devices in Boston have pleaded not guilty to placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct. Peter Berdovsky, 27, whose attorney has said also videotaped part of the police response, and Sean Stevens, 28, are both free on bond.
Boston police found 38 of the blinking signs on Boston's bridges, Fenway Park and at other high-profile spots. The magnetic lights, depicting crudely drawn "Aqua Teen" characters giving the finger, also were place in nine other U.S. cities for a publicity campaign, but they sparked a scare only in Boston. The small signs had apparently been up for two or three weeks in Boston before the calls to authorities last week.

Turner spokeswoman Shirley Powell said neither Samples nor Mark Lazarus, president of Turner Entertainment Group, would grant media interviews Friday.

Samples, 44, has not taken another job yet, Powell said. A replacement for Samples, who had been with the company for 13 years, was not immediately announced.

All the publicity over the marketing stunt didn't translate into much of a marketing boost for the show the network was trying to promote. The cartoon averaged 386,000 viewers last week among its targeted demographic of 18-to-24-year-olds, according to Nielsen Media Research. The previous week, the show averaged a virtually identical 380,000 among young viewers.

http://hamptonroads.cox.net/cci/new...=article&id=D8N6FJKG0&_action=validatearticle

Maybe they can get some good programming now

 

[enterthemadness]

Boston...the only city in the country that can confuse a harmless sign for a bomb.

 

[vegeta21]

sigh...like it was HIS fault some mistook a sign for a bomb.

 

[3dman27]

http://hamptonroads.cox.net/cci/new...=article&id=D8N6FJKG0&_action=validatearticle

Maybe they can get some good programming now

prefferably some hgood old school superhero shows

 

[blind_fury]

That's what he gets for cancelling Justice League!

 

[3dman27]

That's what he gets for cancelling Justice League!

i hear you

 

[Super Kal]

good god... Bostonians are idiots...

 

[Fading]

I'm not saying it was the best way to do a promotional gimmick deal, but agreed on them overreacting.

I watch Adult Swim, and remember them several times saying they would be doing a promotional gimmick and to watch for it on the date they did it. Then they made a video of them putting it together and put it on the net. Then it was reported that several Aqua Teen Hunger Force fans called in telling them it was a promotional gimmick but were ignored.

I mean I understand that we're in a time where we have to be a bit more careful, but to mobilize 100's of thousands of dollars (if not millions) worth of bomb squads, police, probably FBI and swat too with equipment, and then blowing up some of them (the LED boards) over -

I know they were just doing their job, but I'm not seeing how you could think that was a bomb, unless the Joker jumped out of the comic world and started planting them. The point of hidden bombs is to be hidden, I doubt anyone would turn one into a lightbright lol. Personally I think it's stupid for CN to have to lose money and fire ppl over this, but I can understand him stepping down to settle it before someone gets slapped with jail time or something.

 

[enterthemadness]

Thus proving that people from Boston aren't the smartest in the world. C'mon, remember the Babe Ruth thing? yeah, good move Boston Redsox.

 

[Artistsean]

Well for people who don't watch Aqua Teen or Adult Swim, and thats the majority of people (adults and young children, and old people) they wouldn't know who the character was.
Plus they were stuck then in places like under freeways, imagin driving under a freeway tunnel and seeing this device (probably not on yet) and thats all. They probably looked like abandoned little computer things left on the side of the road, that might look suspicious anyway. Plus they didn't register these devices with the officials, if they had they would have been told no probably, but also they would have had them registered and then cops could say thats just and advertisment.
Then add that to the fact that Boston was used to load the terrorists on the planes.
So I totally understand why people might panic in Boston.

I also understand what the advertisers for Aqua Teen were trying to do: the movies coming out, Aqua Teen isn't a typical show and they need to advertise in a non typical way. Mission Impossible 3 tried with with putting speaker things in newspapers that said "this package will self destruct in 30 seconds" and people in one area (LA I think) thought it was a bomb at a news stand and the bomb squad was called in to blow it up there.
They were just trying to think outside the box and keep the sort of non comformist additude that the Adult Swim program has.

but they should have just went with spray paint or billobards.
Its too bad that Jim resigned when he probably had nothing to do with what happened, probably was someone from Adult Swim.

 

[Saved]

How ******ed does a person have to be to think a square lighted up figure giving the finger is a bomb? We pracically have naked people shooting guns while doing the tango on billboards and what not. I don't get it. I just think some people thought it to be inaproperiate and said it was a bomb so they'd look into it faster and remove them. BS.