When PR stunts go wrong, very wrong

Ok, by now you should've got the idea of what PR stunts are and how they're done to promote movies and films as part of marketing and publicity campaigns.

Certainly the good side of putting up PR stunts is creating, in an easy and quick way, media frenzy and buzz around the project the stunt is based on. As I posted previously, the film history is full of examples of successful publicity stunts which resulted in immediate press coverage and eventually in public attention and box-office earnings.

But what if a PR stunt doesn't really turn the way it was supposed to? Is bad publicity always to be considered just more publicity or can it really turn in real bad publicity and poor results?

Thinking about it I did some research looking for cases where a PR stunt didn't really work out as it was suppose to; on January 29, 2007, what was to be a buzz-building PR campaign for the Cartoon Network's movie ''Aqua teen hunger force colon movie film for theatres'' , turned out into a city lock-down under terrorist attack threat. The campaign involved small circuit boxes with images of a Mooninite (an alien from the show's cast) placed for 3 weeks in major U.S. cities, and the Mooninite was depicted giving the middle finger to drivers.

A few Boston citizens reported the boxes to the police which resulted in calling out bomb squads, closing down 2 bridges and roadways for hours, as well as alerting the Pentagon and the U.S. Northern Command.

This is what Dave Morgan, a marketing expert, had to say on the stunt:

''If the objective of the campaign was to get the attention of the citizens of Boston -- and the entire country -- mission accomplished! If part of the objective was to enhance a client's brand -- massive failure! A great family-oriented brand has been damaged in an incalculable way, and significant monetary damage could follow via compensatory damages, fines and legal fees." (www.imediaconnection.com)

Hopefully a good lesson is to be drown from this event; bad publicity isn't always just another way to gain attention and as good as good publicity, as sometimes, if PR stunts and marketing/PR strategies aren't carefully planned a disaster and complete failure can come out of it. So be aware.