Nobody Knows What Hoax Means

All this post-crisis coverage of the buzz marketing that Turner Broadcasting did for Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force keeps using the phrase

bomb hoax

or

hoax bombs

They weren’t hoax bombs. With a hoax there is intent. These were not meant to represent bombs. They were little blinky billboards – glorified Lite-Brites.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

2 responses to “Nobody Knows What Hoax Means”

  1. Thom Avatar

    The Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force promotional stunt that shut down bridge and highways in and around Boston was a bomb from the start. I mean, come on, guerilla marketing is one thing but thinking like a guerilla is another. In this post-9/11 era, this is about as close to shouting FIRE in a theater as you can come and not go to jail. (As of yet the apes who planted the ‘devices’ are still charged with a crime and Turner has ponied-up $2 million).
    So, what does Turner Broadcasting do to fix bad marketing… they try for some good PR… to the tune of $1 million to the city and state and another $1 million in “goodwill funds�. For that money, they could have passed out $5.00 bills to everyone in Boston with a note that read, “Please watch Adult Swim�.
    How edgy do you have to be to attract that demographic?

  2. Sydney Avatar

    Well, Personally, I think you can be as edgy as you want to be legally, without turning the public off so much that they won’t want your product. (As Judith Regan found out the hard way.) Ah the public. They can be so fickle.
    However, the lite-brites in Boston? Promoting a cartoon? They were a bomb neither literally nor metaphorically. I would agree with Andy that they were not a hoax either. I don’t even think they were a particularly clever marketing idea. I think they were meant to cause a bit of a mystery and a stir, and other than the huge overreaction in Boston, the other cities in which they were planted seemed unimpressed.
    What can we say about Boston. Well, I think for me there is definitely one important thing to be said about Boston. Now the mystery of how it is possible for the elderly people in the state of Floriday could screw up and vote for the wrong guy.
    It’s apparent that Bostonites, tired of the cold wet weather, retire south. To a much sunnier locale.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *