Did the studio believe any publicity is good publicity, or did marketers really believe in this tasteless idea? That’s the question people are asking after Paramount Australia tweeted, then deleted a poster promoting the September 11 Australian release of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
The reason for the furor online? The poster for the movie set in New York City features the shelled heroes Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael jumping out of a burning sky scraper with the release date of September 11 emblazoned below.
Obviously – at least to Americans – the release date coincides with the 13th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks.
[Thanks to Taral Wayne for the story.]
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Bah. You want to be shocked by recent World Trade Center attack references, check out episode 1 of Terror in Resonance (US/Canada – British Isles – Australia/NZ – Francosphere), which features a terrorist attack on a skyscraper causing it to collapse in a nearly identical fashion. Though, being slightly nicer terrorists, they don’t use aircraft and they arrange for the building to be evacuated first.
Ah. The short lived X Files spin off THE LONE GUNMEN featured a story about a plane that was going to hit the World Trade Center. Of course, it was aired before the attack….
THE LONE GUNMAN story I put down to synchronicity.
The Ninja Turtles? Short-sightedness and poor memory more likely than bad intent, on the basis that one should probably not presume hostility which can be explained by stupidity.
It isn’t like there’s never been a disaster story written to be in a skyscraper: THE TOWER and THE GLASS INFERNO both come to mind, and I can’t see attributing bad motive to Frank Robinson.
Godzilla has smashed Tokyo flat several times. I know of no raised eyebrows there. Probably because of the anniversery and emotional gut level feelings makes the date “annoying”. Those Jihad terrorists know the value Americans place on anniverseries. That’s why red alerts pop up so close to that date.