Friday, February 2, 2007

The Turner of the Screw.. Boston , part deaux

There was a full page letter in The Boston Globe this morning from Phil Kent, the chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting. It was addressed to the citizens of Boston and in it he apologised to everyone for the guerilla marketing campaign of Wednesday that went awry shutting the city down.....because their stupid animated devices for promoting a cartoon show were hung all over the city in sensitive places. ...and people seeing them thought they were terrorist bombs. He also promised full restitution of expenses.

The last line of the letter is hysterical. It is "We are working to regain your respect."

My respect? The cartoon show being promoted was "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", part of the adult block of cartoons on The Cartoon Network ( owned by Turner) called "Adult Swim".

The show's animated stars are (to quote The Globe):
1. a package of French Fries with a goatee named Frylock
2. an overeager milk shake named "Master Shake" and
3. an amorphous ball of meat known as "Meatwad".

My respect.

Thursday's show had Frylock and Master Shake beamed up to a spaceship where Master Shake had to read "Redbook" magazine. Meatwad stayed on Earth mumbling incoherently. OK, now you have my respect!

The Globe quoted, Ryan Ball, an Animation Magazine editor who said, "...( it goes) over better with herbal enhancement". So I watched while drinking a cup of green tea. It wasn't better!

What? Oh, never mind!

With a plot like that, it's hard to believe that Mayor Menino and really cool,hip Boston police force weren't real aware of the characters before they sent out the troops in heavy body armor to stop the terrorist plot. When asked if he ever watched Adult Swim, Mayor Menino, known somewhat affectionately as "Mumbles". said, "Well mmmpoh, er ahgh mmmph ghhsh" which translated to "No, I never have".

The two young 'artists" from Interference Inc., the guerilla marketing company that Turner wisely hired, pissed off the entire city because they were a bit less than contrite at their hearing, mostly talking about their "hair".

One has dreads down to his ass and the other looks like one of the Beatles on the first album, "Meet the Beatles". Nobody seemed to care til they brought it up. Asked why they were so silly, like man, at their press conference, Peter Berdovsky (he, of the dreadlocks) said, "Oh dude, I thought it was a hairing". I made that up...he didn't really say it, but he might've because now , because of their attitude, they're in far bigger trouble.
And the winner is: TURNER BROADCASTING who has promised to pay back the city in full and now is sure everybody in the country who ever watches news knows about "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" for a lot less than traditional advertising costs, say on Turner Broadcasting. .

I like the name Turner. Did you know that "Lana Turner" spelled backwards is "Anal Renrut".

That's a good way to end this!