Boston Terror Scare: I Don't Blame These Guys..
Seeing events unfold in the past few days after the "terror scare" involving the Cartoon network guerrilla marketing campaign with the LED boxes, I have had time to digest things and come up with an opinion.
I do not blame the guys who were hired to install the boxes around the city. In fact, according to the article in the Boston Globe today, these guys attempted get instructions from the marketing agency they were working through to see how they should go about notifying authorities as the craziness was going on.
But you know what the agency, Interference Inc., instructed the two guys in Boston to do? NOTHING. Asked them to "pretty please keep it on the 'dl'."
That is extremely irresponsible.
I applaud Turner Broadcasting for stepping up the plate right away and accepting responsibility for the fiasco. I applaud the two gentlemen for coming forward and admitting they had been hired to install the boxes.
I do think Turner Broadcasting should be held accountable for the guerrilla marketing stunt. (Which they actively are doing.) I do NOT think the two gentlemen should be punished for doing what they were hired to do. It wasn't their job to know whether or not they could do it. It was the agency's. And I DO think Interference Inc. should be held financially responsible in addition to Turner for the stunt.
Interference Inc. is supposed to be an experienced "guerrilla marketing" firm. And given their experience, someone on their legal team should have been thinking what kind of effect this stunt might have. When you go around sticking LED boxes with wires on random places in a city that is highly "terror-sensitive" (after 9/11), they should have known maybe this might be a problem. I am shocked that they did not think about it.
I do not blame the guys who were hired to install the boxes around the city. In fact, according to the article in the Boston Globe today, these guys attempted get instructions from the marketing agency they were working through to see how they should go about notifying authorities as the craziness was going on.
But you know what the agency, Interference Inc., instructed the two guys in Boston to do? NOTHING. Asked them to "pretty please keep it on the 'dl'."
That is extremely irresponsible.
I applaud Turner Broadcasting for stepping up the plate right away and accepting responsibility for the fiasco. I applaud the two gentlemen for coming forward and admitting they had been hired to install the boxes.
I do think Turner Broadcasting should be held accountable for the guerrilla marketing stunt. (Which they actively are doing.) I do NOT think the two gentlemen should be punished for doing what they were hired to do. It wasn't their job to know whether or not they could do it. It was the agency's. And I DO think Interference Inc. should be held financially responsible in addition to Turner for the stunt.
Interference Inc. is supposed to be an experienced "guerrilla marketing" firm. And given their experience, someone on their legal team should have been thinking what kind of effect this stunt might have. When you go around sticking LED boxes with wires on random places in a city that is highly "terror-sensitive" (after 9/11), they should have known maybe this might be a problem. I am shocked that they did not think about it.
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