Marketing Stunt Turned into Bomb Scare Leads to General Manager Quiting Cartoon Network

The bomb scare caused by the Cartoon Network in Boston last week led to the firing of General Manger Jim Samples. It appears that the company had talked to Samples about the incident and Samples decided it would be best that he resign. He resigns over a marketing stunt that just went wrong.

Cartoon Network was looking for creative ways in which they could market one of their popular Adult Swim shows, Aqua Team Hunger Force. The company decided on launching a guerrilla marketing campaign. In the campaign, individuals would go around the city of Boston putting up light-board signs of one of the shows characters. The incident occurred late at night and caused pandemonium to start in the morning.

Many people mistook the signs as possible terrorist bombs. The city of Boston had to put the public on terrorist alert because of the scare. When it was reported that the scare was only a marketing stunt gone wrong, officials were furious. The scare had caused many disruptions in the city. Traffic was backed up for miles and many residents were afraid to leave their homes. Several schools also closed their doors for the day.

The Cartoon Network was forced to pay the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office $2 million in fines. Instead of producing positive publicity, the network received major backlash from the community and nationwide. The incident is what led to Jim Samples being in the hot seat. He chose to step down because of how poorly he felt about the incident.

In an internal memo to fellow colleagues, Samples stated, "I deeply regret the negative publicity and expense caused to our company as a result of this campaign."

You can visit the YouTube link for video of the marketing campaign in progress.

Sources:

Tmz.com. "Cartoon Network Chief Quits Over Terrorist Scare". [Online] 10 February 2007.
URL: http://www.tmz.com/2007/02/09/cartoon-network-chief-skedaddles-over-terrorist-scare