| Show Turner exec quits after ad stunt panics Boston Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post The terrorist attack Boston carried out last week by little middle finger baring cartoon characters has claimed its first victim Jim Samples head of Turner Broadcastings Broadcasting's Cartoon Network resigned Friday saying he was taking responsibility for having deployed the little Lite Lite-Brite creatures that caused widespread panic in inthe inthe inthe the city Central Boston was virtually paralyzed for hours on Jan 31 as bomb squads closed highways bridges and a section of the Charles River to round roundup up boards featuring the stars of a TV show about a box of french fries his milkshake best friend and anda a meatball The program Aqua Teen Hunger Force runs in Cartoon Networks Network's Adult Swim night late-night programming block Turner Broadcasting notified the FBI in Atlanta where the network is based once it realized the terrorist scare in Boston being covered on all the cable news networks including its own CNN was being caused by the little characters on boards it had installed weeks before in Boston and nine other cities I am sure you are aware of recent events in which h ha a component of an Adult Swim marketing campaign made Turner Broadcasting the unintended focus of controversy in Boston and around the world Samples said Friday in an internal mail e-mail that made its way around the media swamp faster than you could say What are they smoking in Boston I 1 deeply regret the negative publicity and expense caused to our company as a result of this c campaign As general manager of of Cartoon Network I feel compelled to step down effective immediately in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch Samples said in the e On Monday Turner Broadcasting and the guerrilla marketing company that actually deployed the cartoon- cartoon festooned boards agreed to pay 2 milli million n to atone About S SI 1 1 million of that will go to reimburse various state and local agencies for expenses and lunches incurred as a result of the disco discovery ery of the little blinking flipping finger-flipping cartoon characters the second mil will be used to fund the lie Boston areas area's new Homeland Security Cartoon Character Identification and Containment Initiative Meanwhile the two guys who'd been hired to put up the boards around Boston were charged with disorderly conduct We are not sure whether that was because of the job of putting the cartoon characters around town or the news conference they held after their arrest in which they demanded all questions put to them be about hairstyles They really know how to todo todo todo do things in Boston dont don't they Its It's a well-known well truth that nobody in the entertainment industry ever steps down to take responsibility for anything if they are otherwise wildly successful at what they do After the 2004 Janet Jackson Super Bowl Halftime Show That Rocked the World to Ifs Its Core ore did 1 you notice anyone at CBS or MTV which produced the halftime show for CBS issuing a public statement saying they were resigning to take responsibility Me neither Which is why Samples' Samples mail e-mail Friday revved up rumors his resignation had hadas as much to do with Cartoon Networks Network's mediocre ratings as with the little Aqua Teen Hunger Force juvenile delinquent character that scared the stuffing out of Boston that fateful day Adult Swim for instance is averaging about viewers in its target age bracket of 18 to compared 34 with viewers last year Friday in his mail e-mail Samples said he hopes his decision allows us to put this chapter behind us and get back to our mission of de li vering val ed original nal animated entertainment for consumers of all ages But of course there is no more us The year 13 Turner veteran is gone effective immediately |
