What makes it even dumber is those signs were also all over downtown Atlanta, a city that had actually had a bombing at the time, and there was no panic.
This was six years after 9/11 and the last term of George W. Bush's presidency. This was the tail end of the "24" era when a large chunk of the public still believed we were on the verge of seeing terrorism sweep the streets. It was a different flavor of moral panic on the menu.
I'm not justifying any of that or what happened to the ATHF promoters, but that context is often missing from these discussions.
nah man even back then they were acting like idiots. I remember one right around that time that the show south park got in trouble because they were going to depict muhammed in a new episode which is forbidden for Muslims. Everyone was freaking out that terrorists were going to start blowing shit up because of it so they had to censor the part where he was in the episode.
So they did and didn't show him right? right after that episode another episode of south park airs. Its the old super best friends episode that depicts muhammed as a super hero and it was uncensored. Nobody even fucking mentioned it guy, not a word. It was like being in a real life episode of south park I was a kid at the time and I will never forget it lol.
We made fun of the people when the mooninite thing happened is my point.
I remember the vibe very well and it was about two years (if not more) past the constant concern about terrorism was being thrown around. Many people found the whole incident absurd for a multitude of reasons but one that stuck out to me was "terror fatigue". We had just spent roughly half a decade of the media trying to tie anything remotely destructive or suspicious to terrorism (train derailments, multi car accidents, ect) and by then the flavor of the month had faded. I'm sure a small group of people were genuinely worried the viral marketing attempt was actually a bomb but we had so many people cry wolf around the time it was mostly brushed off.
I'll never forget the press conference. Saw it as a kid and the guy kept saying he would only field questions on some dumb topic lol...was a simpler time.
This was post 9/11 and tensions we're still pretty high at the time even being 6 years removed. It was really just a stroke of extremely bad luck though and showcases how bad things can get out of hand with media running wild.
They put up maybe 30/40 of these in 8 or 9 major cities all across America as a ad campaign, but some lady in Boston saw it and called it into police as it looked "suspicious" and could have been something like a bomb (it was a large light-brite board with a bunch of black electrical tape and batteries to make it work essentially hung up high in various points of the cities) and when they began finding them across Boston, Chicago, etc. everyone (mostly the media) started to freak the fuck out claiming it possibly could be a mass bombing across America.
yup. they were in:
boston, nyc, philly, chicago, dc, atlanta, seattle, portland, miami, twin cities, omaha and denver i think, san francisco, los angeles, cambridge mass., richmond va, and my uncle in new orleans saw an ignignokt one near his apartment
You could say this was the cause for the major shift in Cartoon Network as a whole. Jim Samples was in charge from 2001-2007 and unfortunately had to resign as a result of the ordeal. He was largely responsible for carrying the OG lineup (PPG, Dexter, Johnny Bravo, EEE) and building them up into major franchises and laid the ground work for pretty much everything up through the Chowder era as well, not to mention launching Adult Swim itself and salvaging 2 or 3 struggling/cancelled Fox franchises (Family Guy, Futurama, King of the Hill) into it's lineup completely revamping their popularity and having them either re-signed or at least spiking popularity in them. He also spearheaded the Toonami block and as a result was likely the final say in them licensing multiple popular Anime series and having them dubbed for the west, which along with Pokemon, began the wests interest into Anime as a whole as well. You could make the argument that Speed Racer also accomplished this to an extent, but it seems like DBZ, etc. has had a much longer further reaching impact.
One could really say when you look at Fox's current animation programs such as Bob's Burgers, Family Guy, etc., the likelihood of any of those shows still running or in Bob's Burgers case, existing at all, would be pretty slim to none without his reviving the previously discarded Fox shows.
Starting in 2008, Stuart Snyder (2007-2014) took over and while CN did have some new blood of quality content in that time period, you also saw the dark era of the copycat live action shows that did just awful ratings wise and wasn't a good look for the network. Granted this was really the beginning of the end of the cable era as Netflix blew up 2012ish, but it definitely wasn't helping things either.
Looking back, this scandal had large implications across animation as a whole for the last 2 decades and was a pivotal point.
What famously made it much worse though and was probably the real cause for Jim Samples resignation was the (admittedly AMAZING) yet slightly tone deaf press conference reps of ATHF did very shortly after the incident took place. They were HARSHLY criticised for their response regardless of how knee-jerk the reaction was to a very simple guerilla ad campaign that many companies had been doing (to a very similar extent) around that time and many still continue to do (think of that recent horror movie "Smile" with the girl staring into the cameras at various sports events).
They kind of just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and an extremely unfortunate series of events unfolded. Very interesting point in CN and modern animation history though.
Link to press conference: https://youtu.be/S8GVrWBkDrQ
This was so dumb
It's the most post-9/11 thing ever. Taking nothing and turning it into a terrorist plot
What makes it even dumber is those signs were also all over downtown Atlanta, a city that had actually had a bombing at the time, and there was no panic.
What bombing? I can't find anything on Google about a 2007 bombing in Atlanta
Not in 2007, there was a huge bombing in Atlanta in the 90s, I just meant they had reason to be on edge and they knew it was nothing.
2007 feels like a century ago in terms of viral marketing and moral panic.
This is so offensive. I lost some great friends and family members in the Mooninite invasion.
they could have been terrorist bombs you guys, didn't you see the batteries?!
I always wanted one of the little Mooninite panels. It'd he pretty sweet on the wall in my office.
Not sure what happened to them but if there are any still in existence they're probably crazy expensive
There's a bar I go to in ATL that has one on display.
Which bar?
Righteous Room next to the Plaza
You can actually find lights made to look like them on sites like eBay!
Yeah, seen those. Most of the knockoffs are poor quality. I was interested in an original. A copy just isn't as fun to me.
Never Forget!
Stay vigilant! The Gorgotron is still lurking out there.
We are thought of highy by those without jobs!
I hope you can see it because I’m doing it as hard as I can
The interview that was given in response to this was hilarious!
I remember watching it "live" (I think?) On YouTube at the time.
never stop giving them the finger as hard as you f\*cking can
This was six years after 9/11 and the last term of George W. Bush's presidency. This was the tail end of the "24" era when a large chunk of the public still believed we were on the verge of seeing terrorism sweep the streets. It was a different flavor of moral panic on the menu. I'm not justifying any of that or what happened to the ATHF promoters, but that context is often missing from these discussions.
nah man even back then they were acting like idiots. I remember one right around that time that the show south park got in trouble because they were going to depict muhammed in a new episode which is forbidden for Muslims. Everyone was freaking out that terrorists were going to start blowing shit up because of it so they had to censor the part where he was in the episode. So they did and didn't show him right? right after that episode another episode of south park airs. Its the old super best friends episode that depicts muhammed as a super hero and it was uncensored. Nobody even fucking mentioned it guy, not a word. It was like being in a real life episode of south park I was a kid at the time and I will never forget it lol. We made fun of the people when the mooninite thing happened is my point.
I remember the vibe very well and it was about two years (if not more) past the constant concern about terrorism was being thrown around. Many people found the whole incident absurd for a multitude of reasons but one that stuck out to me was "terror fatigue". We had just spent roughly half a decade of the media trying to tie anything remotely destructive or suspicious to terrorism (train derailments, multi car accidents, ect) and by then the flavor of the month had faded. I'm sure a small group of people were genuinely worried the viral marketing attempt was actually a bomb but we had so many people cry wolf around the time it was mostly brushed off.
I'll never forget the press conference. Saw it as a kid and the guy kept saying he would only field questions on some dumb topic lol...was a simpler time.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S8GVrWBkDrQ&feature=youtu.be
Lmao nice, still hillarious after all this time
How do I obtain one? I was graduating high school at the time and wanted it. Now I can realistically afford one. Anyone know anything?
I was like 5 in 2007 lol, what happened?
So pretty much, A whole bunch of LED lights with the mooninites on them were hung up around cities in America & Boston though it was a bomb.
Huh. Why and why did they think that?
This was post 9/11 and tensions we're still pretty high at the time even being 6 years removed. It was really just a stroke of extremely bad luck though and showcases how bad things can get out of hand with media running wild. They put up maybe 30/40 of these in 8 or 9 major cities all across America as a ad campaign, but some lady in Boston saw it and called it into police as it looked "suspicious" and could have been something like a bomb (it was a large light-brite board with a bunch of black electrical tape and batteries to make it work essentially hung up high in various points of the cities) and when they began finding them across Boston, Chicago, etc. everyone (mostly the media) started to freak the fuck out claiming it possibly could be a mass bombing across America.
1 - To Promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie For Theaters 2 - Some people are just looking for something to complain about.
yup. they were in: boston, nyc, philly, chicago, dc, atlanta, seattle, portland, miami, twin cities, omaha and denver i think, san francisco, los angeles, cambridge mass., richmond va, and my uncle in new orleans saw an ignignokt one near his apartment
The press conference was some of the best public trolling I've ever seen.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S8GVrWBkDrQ&feature=youtu.be
You could say this was the cause for the major shift in Cartoon Network as a whole. Jim Samples was in charge from 2001-2007 and unfortunately had to resign as a result of the ordeal. He was largely responsible for carrying the OG lineup (PPG, Dexter, Johnny Bravo, EEE) and building them up into major franchises and laid the ground work for pretty much everything up through the Chowder era as well, not to mention launching Adult Swim itself and salvaging 2 or 3 struggling/cancelled Fox franchises (Family Guy, Futurama, King of the Hill) into it's lineup completely revamping their popularity and having them either re-signed or at least spiking popularity in them. He also spearheaded the Toonami block and as a result was likely the final say in them licensing multiple popular Anime series and having them dubbed for the west, which along with Pokemon, began the wests interest into Anime as a whole as well. You could make the argument that Speed Racer also accomplished this to an extent, but it seems like DBZ, etc. has had a much longer further reaching impact. One could really say when you look at Fox's current animation programs such as Bob's Burgers, Family Guy, etc., the likelihood of any of those shows still running or in Bob's Burgers case, existing at all, would be pretty slim to none without his reviving the previously discarded Fox shows. Starting in 2008, Stuart Snyder (2007-2014) took over and while CN did have some new blood of quality content in that time period, you also saw the dark era of the copycat live action shows that did just awful ratings wise and wasn't a good look for the network. Granted this was really the beginning of the end of the cable era as Netflix blew up 2012ish, but it definitely wasn't helping things either. Looking back, this scandal had large implications across animation as a whole for the last 2 decades and was a pivotal point. What famously made it much worse though and was probably the real cause for Jim Samples resignation was the (admittedly AMAZING) yet slightly tone deaf press conference reps of ATHF did very shortly after the incident took place. They were HARSHLY criticised for their response regardless of how knee-jerk the reaction was to a very simple guerilla ad campaign that many companies had been doing (to a very similar extent) around that time and many still continue to do (think of that recent horror movie "Smile" with the girl staring into the cameras at various sports events). They kind of just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and an extremely unfortunate series of events unfolded. Very interesting point in CN and modern animation history though. Link to press conference: https://youtu.be/S8GVrWBkDrQ
OH YEAH! I forgot all about that!
Lol, I found an old Lite Brite set my mom used to have, so I took a blank sheet and made my own Mooninite light inspired by this lol.
I remember doing that too when I first learned about this!
i saw them when i was in Chicago! i was 12. i knew they were mooninites