Paramount Pictures' upcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot from producer Michael Bay certainly isn't endearing itself to fans. The film has been criticized by many hardcore followers of the franchise for going too far from the original source material and for the strange look of the Turtles themselves, but now fans have an entirely different reason to be upset.
A recent promotional poster for the film (which you can see in full below) posted to social media by Paramount Pictures Facebook and Twitter accounts featured an exploding skyscraper alongside the film's Australian release date of September 11. The image upset many, who angrily made the point that the poster was insensitive to the horrific act of terrorism on Sept. 11, 2001 that killed thousands. The posts caused a massive backlash that led to the Paramount quickly removing the images from its social media accounts.
To be fair, it is evident Paramount wasn't intentionally invoking the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center that happened 13 years ago. Paramount had already used the same promotional poster, albeit without the Sept. 11 date, a week earlier. It seems that simply nobody connected the dots as to why it might be a bad idea, or if they did greatly underestimated the amount of criticism and backlash they would receive. Exploding buildings and Sept. 11 should never go together. Ever.
The move, while poorly thought out and very obviously a very bad idea, is nothing compared to that of other companies attempting to commercialize the tragic date. AT&T last year tweeted out a picture of a hand holding a smartphone, taking a picture of the Tribute in Light 9/11 memorial with the accompanying words "Never forget." The public backlash against the tweet, which many claimed was commercializing the terrorist attacks by featuring the promotional image of the smartphone, caused AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to take to the company's official blog to offer an apology. Stephenson said the company would never make a similar mistake again.
Even the city of New York itself has fallen into a similar trap, as the 9/11 Memorial Museum charges for admittance, even to the families and loved ones who died in the acts of terror. The museum will also have a gift shop, where it will sell the usual gift shop fare of T-shirts, mugs, key chains and more, rubbing many the wrong way.
With Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" releasing a week before the U.S. premiere of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on August 8, will the film be able to overcome its poor buzz and blunders to come out number one on opening weekend? "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" stars Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Alan Ritchson, William Fichtner, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard and Pete Ploszek.
