I remember when the Herald threw a fit about the GTA Vice City Stories ads on the side of T trains here in Boston. The MBTA pretty much ignored it. The Herald was hilariously tacky about it, though. They found a local prostitute and asked what she thought of GTA Vice City’s celebration of murdering prostitutes to steal their money. Oddly enough, she came out against the murdering of prostitutes.
Actually, looking again it seems like the MBTA did cave to the pressure. Unfortunately, the Herald, being a shitty newspaper, also has a shitty site. You get to pay for any articles in their archive.
Here’s an overview of the stories from the archives containing the phrase ‘grand theft auto’.
Preview (Abstract/Citation) Full Text (No Photos) Buy Page Print T BANS OFFENSIVE ADS ; Violent games gone
MICHELE McPHEE; Boston Herald; Dec 13, 2006; pg. 31;
7. Preview (Abstract/Citation) Full Text (No Photos) Buy Page Print DISENCHANTED ; Village’s time has come and gone - long gone
MARGERY EAGAN; Boston Herald; Nov 30, 2006; pg. 3;
8. Preview (Abstract/Citation) Full Text (No Photos) Buy Page Print MBTA chief fires back at critics of violent video game ads
MICHELE McPHEE; Boston Herald; Nov 23, 2006; pg. 29;
9. Preview (Abstract/Citation) Full Text (No Photos) Buy Page Print Editorial ; Ad wars on the MBTA
Boston Herald; Nov 22, 2006; pg. 22;
10. Preview (Abstract/Citation) Full Text (No Photos) Buy Page Print T, under pressure from cops, eyes way to kill vile ad
MICHELE McPHEE; Boston Herald; Nov 22, 2006; pg. 14
11. Menino gives MBTA earful about decision ; Agency: Ads will stay
MICHELE McPHEE; Boston Herald; Nov 21, 2006; pg. 6;
12. Preview (Abstract/Citation) Full Text (No Photos) Buy Page Print Hookers split on impact of ads
O’RYAN JOHNSON; Boston Herald; Nov 20, 2006; pg. 2;
13. Preview (Abstract/Citation) Full Text (No Photos) Buy Page Print THE BEAT ; T should put the brakes on violent video game ads
In reverse order. I love how it goes from ‘the ads will stay’ to ‘banned!’.
Oh Boston, you know I love you madly, but you’re such a goddam conservative town for such a liberal state.
Note that the most recent story isn’t mentioned above, but it’s from March when the mayor of Boston decided to crack down on the sale of M rated games to teens. This being the same guy who pretty much shut down the city over the Aqua Teens.
I never said it was a conservative furor. However, it was the mayor making a big thing out of nothing because he wanted an excuse to make a big deal out of something. Boston kind of has a sickness where there are people who are genuinely jealous, though they’d never say it, that 9/11 happened in New York but didn’t happen here. The planes took off from Logan, after all. There’ve been papers written about it.
It was a nasty weekend for violent crime here in Chicago, GTAIV ad coverage has been massive for the past few weeks, but the correlation is ridiculous as always.
Personnally I look forward to the day I can stop seeing all the Sarah Marshall advertising painting my fair city.
came right before that paragraph about Aqua Teen, or at least I did not get your intended message from the post as it was.
My point was that while I am unfamiliar with Boston politics or with the societal derangements you claim it has, it seems to me that the only thing connecting these two is that in both cases things video gamers like had their ads pulled in that city. It seems logical to me that there were very different mechanisms and pressures driving them due to the particular situations, and therefore that the direct connection you were drawing between them was tenuous at best.
And, just to clarify, I just meant that the ATHF ads, like most Adult Swim ads and too much of their content, was the sort of nauseatingly smarmy viral bullshit that I don’t care for generally. I did not mean that I thought the terror alert was warranted, although I definitely could have gotten behind a solid littering fine.
No, you didn’t imagine that that line came before the comment about the Aqua Teens, but you do seem to be ignoring that the comment about Boston conservatism came after a series of Herald headlines about the removal of GTA ads from MBTA trains. It’s entirely possible that the comment was specifically referring to the stuff that it came after.
Consider also that the subject of the following paragraph is not, in fact, the Aqua Teens. It is Mayor Menino. I noted that he was attempting to pass a city law wherein there would be punishment for vendors who sold M rated games to teens. Then, to give a touchpoint to those who may not know of this particular mayor, I offered up a major event most American readers could use to identify him with.
