Digiwonder?

Hi folks, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Here are some thoughts on the Boston marketing fiasco…..

When is Guerilla Marketing not cool? When it shuts down a major US city because it’s mistaken for a terrorist attack.

After a series of lite-brite-esque cartoon characters strung on bridges and tunnels in Boston were revealed to be a promotion for a Cartoon Network show, the mainstream media and blogosphere erupted in a debate of whether Boston overreacted and if the plot was brilliant or a low-point of marketing.

To the first point, Boston didn’t overreact. How should the general public be expected to recognize a cartoon that needs to employ guerilla marketing to get noticed and whose audience is the same demographic as the glib duo who hung the boards and then taunted the press as they were arrested and posted bond?

The commuter who spotted one of the strange looking advertisements and alerted the police was following through on what every DC metro commuter hears a dozen times a day– See something weird? Tell someone. What if this hadn’t been a hoax? The media would elevate the vigilant commuter to hero status, while the police and bomb squads would be praised for being on top of their game.

As for the success of the campaign? I’m certain the execs at Interference Media, the New York Guerilla Marketing firm hired by Turner Broadcasting are feeling like they did a pretty good job this week. While they have an apologetic splash screen up on their site, it reads half-hearted. After all, I’m a woman in my early 30s—not the show’s target audience– and I can not only name Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but I also now recognize its characters and can name the network it airs on. In other words, the campaign not only succeeded, it got well beyond the audiences it intended to reach.

So I’ll give this one an A for permeation and an F for execution. When it’s all said and done, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force clip I watched on the show’s website tells me, this is no Simpsons or South Park. The most brilliant marketing tactic conceivable can’t fix that.

What should we communicators take away from this story? Like any profession, we should operate with an eye on ethical conduct. There are some means that do not justify the end. In my opinion, this was one of those times.