SURVENT

I noticed an article from a week ago on CNN about the Mooninite sign promotion that went completely wrong for TBS and the company they hired to do the promotion. According to the article:

Turner Broadcasting System and Interference Inc. have agreed to pay $2 million to make amends for last Wednesday's guerrilla marketing scheme that led to a bomb scare in Boston, the Massachusetts attorney general said Monday.

The settlement included about $1 million to cities and state agencies for their response and another $1 million in goodwill funding.

Boston will get more than $484,590.

That is a pretty large chunk of change to have to shell out over this, but as I stated in my previous post, the exposure they have received is well worth the $2 million setllement. Now everyone all over the world knows the name of the cartoon that was being promoted as well as the name of one of the characters. While the promotion went wrong, the outcome is was still successful. Will they do it again? Probably not.

I did find the following part of the article interesting:

"Last week's events caused a major disruption in the greater Boston area on many levels -- crippling public transportation, causing serious traffic problems, negatively affecting local businesses, and perhaps most significantly, costing Boston and surrounding communities thousands of dollars," Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a written statement.

"It is our hope that these funds will cover not only the expenses incurred by the many agencies who participated in the response and investigation of the devices discovered in the Boston area last Wednesday, but they will also enable our communities to enhance homeland security, or to pursue other important community initiatives."

Interesting how Boston will get money out of this to cover the services that were utilized in the effort to determine if these were bombs - which it was great that the city took the measures they did - but where is the money for the "negatively affected local businesses"? It is great that the settlement also pays for the expenses that were incurred by other agencies who were involved so that we the taxpayers do not get stuck with the bill. However, Boston seems to have over reacted to the situation and in doing so they have been able to squeeze out an additional $1 million for "goodwill funds" as the article continues to state:

The approximately $1,000,000 in "goodwill funds" will be divided among the involved agencies for use by programs that support homeland security, community education and awareness, emergency response preparedness, training and equipment, or other appropriate community security and safety education.

One million dollars will not go all that far when shared by as many agencies as were involved, so what is the point of the extra expense?

Other bloggers are saying:

The Bostonist post concludes well - I agree with them.

Raw Story article from a link on Poor Mojo's News Show RSS

"Save Boston" game link on The Presurfer - Fun game making lite of the situation.