Boston Versus ATHF

[r3coiL]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

I find these shirts quite comical:

Mooninite LED Shirts

[Nikita]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

Not sure how many of you have seen this, but the individuals behind the marketing campaign gave a press conference after their court hearing. Their response to the ludicrous situation? A ludicrous press conference, where they only talked about '70s haircuts. Video here:

http://wbztv.com/video/?cid=9&id=28369@wbz.dayport.com

I have so much love and respect for those guys now:-) I'm overwhelmed with how awesome that was.

[Nikita]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

I think now we have the cry wolf problem. What happens if someone does decide to build bombs that look similar? I just love to stir the pot. I will buying one of those never forget t-shirts.

[jur1st]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

Last night I took a little straw poll in the class I'm teaching this semester. Much of the media has made the issue out to be a generation gap, so I thought it would be interesting to see what a mixed class thought.

My students range from their early 20's to mid 40's and some are former military personel, though not Iraq veterans. Each person believed that it was a gross overreaction on the part of the authorities.

What we did conclude, though, was that it would probably be a better idea for gorilla marketing firms to let someone within local government know that there will be something going on.

Granted, this may seem to go against the whole purpose of gorilla marketing but it probably would be smart.

[CP99]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

I believe the "ad hoaxers" handled the press release appropriately.
What I can't understand is the gross overreaction made by both the press involved, as well as the law enforcement on the issue at hand.

[Rance]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

Oh you that's funny do you. Apparently you've never gotten a sniff of my shoes. What I can't understand is why those stupid reporters hung around after they started talking about hair even though I too find it a very important topic.

[noid]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

Actually that would be guerrilla marketing, not gorilla marketing. I really, really dont want to see gorilla marketing any time soon. Gorillas are scary.

Overall, its a tough call to make. For those that don't know me, I'm a 'first responder' for my local sheriff's department when I'm not at my day job of being a mediocre security professional. We deal with events all the time where we say 'bet you cash money that the subject isnt lost, but rather over at a friends house and he forgot to call home and let someone know' and more often than not, we're right. But we have to respond every time and treat it like a real situation till its proven otherwise. Theres a saying common to InfoSec and .mil intelligence that goes to the effect of 'we have to be right every time, they only have to be right once'. While Occam's Razor is a very real answer to just about any problem, these are the people who wont get the benefit of 'well, when you're right 99% of the time, its ok to be wrong the other 1%'. However, I do think that a few things could have been handled differently.

1. Turner Broadcasting should have jumped on that grenade sooner and just let folks know it was a marketing campaign

2. At that point, Boston PD should have just stood down. Turner Broadcasting is a large company, and the ones who authorized the placement of the mooninites, so they can be an authoritative voice on the subject

3. The media should just stick to reporting the facts. Thats what amuse me so much about the 'press conference'. The media gets so fucking tweaked when you dont drop everything and fall all over yourself to do your monkey dance for them. Now, these guys definitely did a monkey dance, but it was on THEIR terms and not the media's. Thats what made it so beautiful.

[DaKahuna]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

Edit2: Well, that did'nt take long: http://raplica.com/store/shirts/Adlt_Swim/mooninite

Could not help myself - have one XXL on order

[Voltage Spike]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

1. Turner Broadcasting should have jumped on that grenade sooner and just let folks know it was a marketing campaign

It appears to be the position of those involved at Turner, though, that they didn't even realize it was their device causing a problem until later. I would be surprised if the police were taking pictures of the devices and sending them to the news channels in an attempt to solicit information.

2. At that point, Boston PD should have just stood down. Turner Broadcasting is a large company, and the ones who authorized the placement of the mooninites, so they can be an authoritative voice on the subject

Ah, but then the terrorists could simply call and claim to be from Turner when they make their copy-cat bomb. I would be suspicious of someone calling to tell me it wasn't a bomb; I'm not suspicious of things that don't look like bombs.

"Hey, you know that big metal chest out in front of the courthouse? It's one of our shipments that fell off a truck ... not a bomb."

[Rance]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

wonder if they(cartoon network or whoever owns the likenesses of ATHF) will start suing the people who are using the mooninites to make money. Actually I have the anwser to my own question, they'll start suing after all this quiets down so they can make more money off it and stir up the publicity again.

[bascule]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

The media gets so fucking tweaked when you dont drop everything and fall all over yourself to do your monkey dance for them. Now, these guys definitely did a monkey dance, but it was on THEIR terms and not the media's. Thats what made it so beautiful.

Hell yeah, it certainly threw the incompetent bumblefucks for a loop

[Vyrus]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

lol wow, i love how this just happend and has allredy warrented 4 pages on the defcon forums :D

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

absolutely fantastic reaction piece to the whole boston mess, from a bostonian who is pissed at the bloviating of his city officials.

I suppose it was inevitable that someday the pop culture gap would result in an entire city being shut down and the “perps” being frog marched into some Homeland Security gulag, but I had always hoped it would be a second- or third-rate hee-haw flyover city, not Boston.

...

Next, let’s all get out our dictionary and look up “hoax”, shall we? Because while “War of the Worlds” was a hoax, this was not. There was no subterfuge involved, and no effort made to convince people that these devices were bombs. If I see a scary looking tree out my bedroom window, think it’s a monster, and then discover upon closer inspection that it isn’t, it doesn’t mean the tree has perpetrated a hoax against me. What it means is that for a moment I took leave of my senses. And just because I’m embarrassed about it doesn’t give me the right to go cut down the tree. (emphases mine)

saw this quote in the WaPo article covering the story...

an "ATHF" movie opens next month

perhaps it's some sort of weird irony that amid all this sensation, that fact somehow totally slipped past me until now. neither their original marketing nor the hype and attention that has been drawn to the matter now, managed to clue me in to this film. geez, you skip a few weeks of sitting around with the other stoners at midnight watching cartoon nework and you wind up totally out of the loop.

[Nikita]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

Did I call it or what?
http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/2007/01...toshop-of.html

[Nikita]

Re: Boston Versus ATHF

neither their original marketing nor the hype and attention that has been drawn to the matter now, managed to clue me in to this film. geez, you skip a few weeks of sitting around with the other stoners at midnight watching cartoon nework and you wind up totally out of the loop.

Here is the trailer.... I find the intro credits especially fitting in light of the recent events...heh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6EPjnQEZWs