Boston Mayor Urges Theaters to Boycott 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force'
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Thrillers, New Releases, New Line, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Exhibition, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Politics
Remember that incident a few months back involving the city of Boston and a marketing idea gone wrong? In case you're totally oblivious or have a bad memory, it consisted of a silly stunt to promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force that accidentally caused a terror alert. In the end, the mistake resulted in two men facing felony hoax charges, the head of Cartoon Network resigning, Turner Broadcasting paying out $2 million in restitution and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino hating the surreal animated series forever. Unfortunately for Menino, the cinematic spin-off of the series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, opens this Friday around the country, including in two theaters in his city. Menino has made attempts to convince these locations to boycott the film, "out of respect to the people of Boston," but obviously the theaters are not willing to meet his demands. The thing Menino doesn't appear to realize, which doesn't take an expert in marketing communication to point out (though the Boston Herald quotes one, just to go with an official perspective), that any negative attention he can give the movie will help in its appeal.
In unrelated news, Menino has also attacked the marketing of another film this week. He has ordered the removal of advertisements for Fracture, which contain written in big letters the phrase "I Shot My Wife" superimposed over Anthony Hopkins' face. The fifty posters, which are part of a reported $52,000 ad campaign, have been on display in bus shelters for nearly a month, and apparently they have caused a lot of complaints. A statement from the mayor's office claimed the ads promoted a negative and violent message, which makes me wonder what Menino would have thought if Boston had been included in the controversial campaign for Captivity. He might have gone and banned all movie marketing within city limits for good. Well, except for maybe those promoting seemingly harmless Tim Allen comedies. After all, in case anyone thinks that the mayor has a thing against Hollywood in general, recall how much love he showed to Wild Hogs last month.










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-11-2007 @ 7:27PM
Stan Winsome said...
Trailer voice says, "How much of an idiot can one Mayor make himself.... Find out this summer in Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Movie!"
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4-11-2007 @ 7:57PM
pete said...
who voted for that asshat. if any one in boston reads this post and says, "hey i did" kick yourself in the ass... now.
thank you. that is all.
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4-11-2007 @ 11:02PM
PhyerFly said...
Dear Thomas M. Menino,
Thank you for the free publicity. We assure you that none of the people who would go see this movie in the first place give a rat's ass what you say.
Sincerely,
The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters Colon Marketing Team
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4-12-2007 @ 8:09PM
jason said...
i'm so glad to hear that the city of boston has resolved all of its infrastructure and social problems that they can now focus on the real scourge of society - movie advertising!
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4-12-2007 @ 3:36PM
Karma said...
Boy. What some stupid people will do, rather than plainly admit they were wrong, or that half of Boston's residents are too stupid to tell an advertisement from a bomb.
Although what really ended up making the whole situation worse was the mainstream media brainwashing people who merely only heard about the incident into believeing that it was actually a "bomb scare".
Of course, it never was anything like this, but the ignorant people that are drawn to anything that is "news" no matter how stupid, believe these false words at face value.
That is way something so ridiculous ends up being a major event. Becuase the majority of people are too stupid and ignorant to realize the real facts of the case. With Mayor McDumbass leading the charge of stupidity parade, here.
I agree with others that this movie really had no chance of getting that much attention before the aforemention MayorMcDumbass decided to bring so much attention to a harmless film after a harmless ad campain blew up in that idiots face.
And of course, politicians like him are blind to the normal reaction that responsible human beings would take, as in simply admitting he was wrong, and just decideing to be the world's biggest and stupidest asshole and hope that this will, somehow right the situation.
In short, this guy is exactly as much of a worthless douchebag as that Jack Thompson idiot. I hope he likes being lumped into the same category as that raving lunatic idiot. Because The mayor of Boston has now pretty much committed political suicide and proven to the world his amazing incompetence to hold such a position. ...which will likely stay with him for the rest of his life.
...and oh yeah.. as everyone else has said.. given this movie way more publicity than it ever would have gotten, otherwise.
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4-15-2007 @ 5:57PM
Toby said...
What is up with Boston and weird marketing campaigns? Um, like, how about the naked Boston car dealer putting his videos all over YouTube?
http://uncutvideo.aol.com/videos/6486dd8528260f126484462023f49052?index=0
Funny stuff though. (At least funnier than a false bomb scare.)
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4-17-2007 @ 1:26AM
Karma said...
Toby.... the point that you are either completly misinformed on or willfully missing is the same mistake that everyone is apparently making as a result of the false and incorrect reporting from the media.
They were never meant to be a bomb scare, nor was it ever intended. They were MISTAKEN as such by foolish, and paranoid people who would have honestly had to have been quite stupid to mistake these things for bombs in the first place.
They were little blinking lite bright pictures of little green cartoon characters. Never intended for anyone to think they were bombs.
Hence the "False bomb scare" was incorrectly given by the media, which made the issue so big in the first place. That the media misinformed the public as to what it even was. There was no intended bomb connotation until the media themselves made the assumption which in turned misinformed everyone else.
The real wrongdoing in this case was squarly to blame on the mayor, the paranoid citizens in Boston that overreacted and the media for either giving wrong information or lying to the public about what actually transpired.
Something that, given by your reply, you're also perpetuating.
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4-20-2007 @ 11:41AM
Toby said...
Oh, no, I know that the bomb scare wasn't intentional. I agree that it's ridiculous that people interpreted it as such.
What did you think of the video link I posted?
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