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It Pays to Advertise

Cost of a 30-second commercial during Super Bowl XL!: $2.6 million

Cost of Turner Broadcasting's settlement with Boston and Massachusetts over the cartoon terror incident: $2 million.

So which do you think was the better marketing strategy? What, pray tell, do you think the producers of any TV show or movie would pay for a week's worth of mentions in every late-night TV comedy monologue in the country and front-page placement in every daily newspaper in the world? No matter how out of it culturally one may be, and I'm way up there in that department, you've heard about Aqua Teen Hunger Force by now. Whether you watch it is beyond advertising's power to affect. Nobody spends more on Super Bowl ads than Bud Light, and they're usually good ones. Still wouldn't drink that swill on a bet.

My favorite part of yesterday's settlement is our area's public sector poohbahs got Turner Broadcasting to say the city and state's response to little lite-brite cartoon images was totally appropriate. Never mind that sassy David Letterman, Mayor Menino. You were right to freak out. We live in dangerous times.

And we do. Know what makes them so dangerous? The incompetence of authority figures in America's public and private sectors. It's worth remembering the entire 9/11 catastrophe stemmed from one simple bat-brained reality-to save a few bucks, our nation let people carry knives and other cutting edge weapons on airplanes. Osama bin Laden didn't create that threat. He merely noticed it.

After an incident in which Boston's emergency response procedures were revealed to have some significant flaws, most notably in the media-pol collaboration to spread panic rather than contain it, the primary goal of those in charge is to stop people from laughing at them.

Makes me feel more secure, knowing the city and state are run by people who've yet to figure out no one compliments you on your wisdom quite as fervently as a con artist.

posted by Michael Gee @ 8:08 AM