Mooninites Invade Boston - Doomed to Succeed.
I find it tricky to write a post about a marketing campaign that resulted in the gridlock of the city of Boston, nearly a million dollars in emergency response expenses, and countless cases of irrational panic. Writing about it raises questions like “Am I giving undue attention to an inappropriate publicity stunt, thereby encouraging others to do the same?” and also “wait - was the problem the stunt, or the city’s reaction to the stunt”. I also find it tricky because it has already been covered by hundreds of other blogs.
As an attention-getter, the stunt worked. See ABC, CNN, WBZ Radio, Boston, (full coverage from Boston.com is here but may not be for long), and for a more insightful read, check out Making Light’s roundup.
This has truly received an undue amount of attention, especially in the city of Boston. These same devices were in place in 10 cities for weeks without gathering any attention. In fact, homeland security wasn’t even aware of them in the 10 other cities - think on that a bit… Perhaps I should feel safer living in the one city that took it seriously. Or perhaps I should add it to the same mental scrap book next to The Big Dig, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Mike Dukakis, and the Celtics, who have made it embarassing to admit to the rest of the country that I’m from Massachusetts.
Thinking back to the marketing aspects of this stunt - was it worth the $1 million in damages being sought by Boston Mayor Menino from Turner and their agency, Interference, Inc? Was it worth the legal fees and the costs to build them and execute across 10 major cities? Of course it was. Who but the lonliest of hermits isn’t now aware of the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force and their irreverent Mooninite’s?
But this campaign HAD to cause some kind of stir to succeed. Otherwise, as in the other 9 cities, it would have been casually dismissed by the masses and picked up by the same niche that already watches the show.
The book of “Bad PR is Good PR” will need a new chapter when this blows over.
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...
