Friday, February 09, 2007

Buh Bye Jim

This must have been a big surprise. Not.

ATLANTA Feb 9, 2007 (AP)— The head of the Cartoon Network resigned Friday following a marketing stunt that caused a security scare in Boston.

The announcement about Jim Samples resigning was made in an internal memo sent to Cartoon Network staffers.

In a statement to employees, Samples said he regrets the stir that the stunt caused.

"It's my hope that my decision allows us to put this chapter behind us and get back to our mission of delivering unrivaled original animated entertainment for consumers of all ages," Samples said.

Samples said he felt "compelled to step down, effective immediately, in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch."

--Harry Weber, AP

I'm sure Mr. Samples felt compelled to resign. Honor, and all that. Also five or six high-level Turner/Time-Warner executives pushing him overboard.

Thirteen years with the Turner, all blown away like gold dust in a mountain windstorm. But it was bound to happen. The company coughed up two million dollars to assuage the anger of Boston's city fathers. Somebody was bound to take the fall.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

its was a dumb campaign, still cant believe that somebody in this day and age would think..."yeah lets do that! and oh, spend and few million doing it". dumb.

Anonymous said...

It's Bush's fault.

Of course!

Anonymous said...

actually, given how much press the 'stunt' attracted, it was probably a more wildly successful ad campaign they could have ever pulled off. A few million dollars that Turner can EASILY afford to pay off in exchange for however much they can potentially make, now that everyone and their grandmother knows what ATHF is, is probably just a drop in the bucket. Granted, having the Jim step down is obviously just to serve up someone's head on a plate to appease the powers that be and save face.

One executive and 2 million dollars was probably an easy choice to make in exchange for exposure that, well... you just can't buy!

Anonymous said...

The original campaign might have been dumb, but minimal money was spent...

Until the campaign blew up and CN-Turner-Time/Warner had to pay reparations.

Anonymous said...

it was a very dumb stunt for a dumb product for sure. But i must say i am very surprised by a comment on here accusing American's as "mindless wimps". An act of war by some very evil people was declared on us by killing nearly 3000 innocent men and women at their work desks. we are ready to protect ourselves at the drop of a hat or crude looking devices that easily double as explosives.

Anonymous said...

Keep in mind that the "devices" were up for a week or more before anyone freaked out. That's one slow-falling hat...

Anonymous said...

I think they said "...or crude looking devices that easily double as explosives."

Anonymous said...

Actually, what he or she said was:

"we are ready to protect ourselves at the drop of a hat or crude looking devices that easily double as explosives."

It doesn't make sense, and it's not even a complete sentence - more like two random thoughts strung together. Maybe the missing part would make the difference.

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