Serge #36 .... You made me spit out my coffee!
I need to rememeber not to drink and read at the same time. That was too funny! But now there is coffee everywhere. Doh!
I owe my pen to VP.
If it wasn't for VP, I'd never-ever-ever have gotten into Stonecoast. :-)
What I loved most about VP: The instructors at VP said the things that none of my undergrad professors ever dared to say .... and then some!
I owe my pen to VP.
If it wasn't for VP, I'd never-ever-ever have gotten into Stonecoast. :-)
What I loved most about VP: The instructors at VP said the things that none of my undergrad professors ever dared to say .... and then some!
My boss talks about this quite a bit. It's the way she runs our dept and it's one of the reasons I like working for her. She calls it "the art of framing your argument before it frames you".
She says that the first comments that are made about an issue are usually the ones that all other comments are measured against. If you let someone else make the first statement, you will find yourself on the defensive end of the conversation. This puts you in the passenger seat, which is not a powerful position.
Bush has given new meaning to the term "Rat Pack".
I think Bush has come to realize that he's not going down in the history books as one of the great American presidents, as he clearly desired. So, he's making the most of his power while he still has it and we'll be living with the consequences of his actions for many, many years.
Congratulations on your nomination, Patrick!
As corny as it sounds, VP changed my life for the better. Thanks guys!
80: Nikki, I think you have confused two points that I made and blended them together. The point I made didn't site the panic in Boston as the reason for the ad campaign being dumb.
From a marketing perspective, yes, the ad campaign is dumb since most of the people seeing the signs had no idea what the signs were advertising. The brand image is weak at best and therefore doesn't correlate to a strong ad campaign.
However, once the bomb scare was made and the news began to promote the ad for Turner, it then became a good campaign since thousands, if not millions, of people like me who couldn't care less about Aqua Teen now know more than they EVER wanted to know about the show. The name Aqua Teen has been imprinted on me and that LED sign is now a permanent association to the show.
In fact, it is Boston's panic that gave the campaign its impact. Without the panic no one would have noticed or cared. Thank God someone made those phone calls that alerted the police about the suspicious objects!
Still, I don’t think the ad was well done or well designed. If there was no panic the ad would have bombed - no pun intended.
As a Bostonian, I like my city safe. I'd rather not get blown up on my way to the office since it makes for a rather crappy work day to arrive in 300 pieces. Then again, considering the nasty tempers of the other drivers on the road and the lack of street signs, any commute within the immediate area is always a challenge with or without Mooninites hanging from the bridges. ;-)
I think the initial response of checking into the first mysterious object report should have been taken very seriously. Any other response would have been inappropriate. After a cursory inspection of the object, I think the LED sign could have easily been determined to be nothing dangerous or explosive. As more reports were made, I think any logical person could have ascertained that this was some kind of marketing gimmick or promotion. It would have helped if the character was recognizable by the people investigating, spotting, or reporting the LED signs. All in all, the response was overkill since the bomb squad did not need to check out each and every unit found.
Once the news got a hold of the story, panic ensued. This is a reasonable response since the unofficial tag line for Fox News in Boston is "IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS!" However, to be fair, it wasn’t just Fox News that aired bomb scare reports – this was done by ALL of the stations and the information was released by the POLICE. If it wasn’t released by the police, they should have been on the air calming people’s nerves by denying the bomb scare reports.
This is not to say that Turner should be cleared from any wrong doing, nor am I implying that the marketing guy and the artist should be let go without being reprimanded. Here’s the thing, this was a dumb ad campaign. It was poorly designed, poorly planned, poorly implemented, and poorly promoted. Most people who saw those little signs had no idea what they referred to. Who would even think that a lit LED figure flipping the bird would have anything to do with children? This is a case of bad judgment. No wonder the show is failing, especially with that kind of promotion!
Who hires these people? Why do they think anyone would even care? Why would they think this was a good promotion since it went UNNOTICED in nearly every city? Or maybe that’s the key – only one city had to notice; only one city had to put the signs in the spotlight.
Maybe this was EXACTLY the type of response the client wanted since now we all know that there is a really bad carton show called “Aqua Teens†on the Cartoon Network. If Boston hadn’t noticed the LED figures, Turner’s money would have been wasted. The Boston police may have spent a million dollars investigating the signs, but I’d guarantee you that the Cartoon Network has seen a jump in ratings on that formerly obscure cartoon show.
Clearly, the Brits have cornered the market on hampster news. If only our headlines were more about the creative, cleverness of hampsters and less about an infuriating little man who belongs back on his ranch.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2007 | 11 |
Total: 12 comments. View all these comments on a single page.
The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Erin Underwood:
Show all comments by Erin Underwood.