Turner Broadcasting said the words…a carefully worded apology, read ad infinitum on the nightly news and in oh so many venues.  “Let me start with what is most important — an apology, for the confusion and inconvenience caused in your community on Wednesday by an unconventional marketing tactic.(more)”

The problem is, they obviously aren’t sorry.  In yesterday’s press conference with the two kids that were arrested for placing the led guerilla ads for Aqua Teen Hunger Force featuring the “Err” character giving everyone the finger, they proceeded to use the venue to continue the marketing blitz for their Adult Swim cartoons.

The two kids refused to take anything but “hair’ related questions – and that is a direct reference to another Adult Swim cartoon – “Perfect Hair Forever“.  The truth is that Turner, and their guerilla marketing firm, Interference Inc., (who have gone completely underground at this point to avoid arrest) just don’t get it.

Turner has offered the city $850,000 to compensate for the damages caused by the escapade.  They’d have gladly paid for this level of exposure and it they’d bought a super bowl ad, it would have cost more, and gotten less exposure.  If the state doesn’t come down hard on them, we will see others doing it.  Think of the new thing as “terrorist marketing” or “traffic spam.”  These people need to be slammed hard right now, or we’ll have this stuff happening every couple weeks.

(Note: I hadn’t read the Boston Herald’s coverage of this story when I wrote this in the a.m.  – they’ve definitely got the right story, as opposed to the Boston Globe who have totally missed this angle.)