25 Years of TMNT... Makes Me Sad - Day 1

2009 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of many different franchises, but most notably, at least to me, is that of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I guess you could consider me a TMNT fanatic - along with Bruce Lee, the TMNT are the reason I have interest in the martial arts. I also learned many life lessons from the original cartoon from the 1980s and '90's. So on the silver anniversary of the franchise, you would expect to see much elation, correct?

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be entirely the case. Although there are a few cool items and events in the pipeline for the good guys who always 'wear' green, a lot of it is complete and utter rubbish. As a matter of fact, there is evidence that the franchise as a whole is spinning around in a toilet right now.

Over the next few entries, I will detail the atrocities that will befall everyone's favourite anthropomorphic superhero team, as well as touch upon the things that I actually think are neat. It's just my little way of venting that the series that I've supported for pretty close to my entire life has kicked me in the metaphorical gonads.

Today's entry will deal with the least important transgression; Peppercom.

Peppercom is a Public Relations firm located primarily in New York. As a pitch ad for a chance to assist in the promotion of the 25th anniversary of TMNT, they created this intelligence rape:



Fortunately, while you can watch it, you can't hear it. Why? Because Youtube disabled the sound.

"This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled."

That's right - they didn't even get permission to use the music from the original cartoon show in their pitch proposal. Now granted, this is pretty much more corporate copyright Nazi behaviour that is rampant throughout Youtube, but you'd think that someone who is officially doing work for Mirage would actually get permission, y'think?

But that isn't the point. The audio snafu is just something I came across today. What the point is, how mind-numbling stupid their "silly" proposal is. For one thing, this is a professional business. When you're trying to entice other businesses to utilize your services, you don't slap together some Godawful little video. It's so blatantly goofy that even the Turtles at their wackiest would commit seppuku in shame if they saw this. Furthermore, the production values are worse than a clip from a high school film class.

It's unfortunately not even just the TMNT video that fails. I've researched quite a few of their "promotional" videos, and every one of them stinks like a sweaty buttcrack. I couldn't even finish watching their psuedo-"attack" video; I was beginning to feel as if I was going to see my dinner again... all over my keyboard.

The 25th anniversary site they designed is just as laughable. It looks like it was handled by someone with rudimentary knowledge of HTML and Flash, and isn't even comprehensive. There are a lot important events that are left out of their timeline, and some of the Mirage Studios history is blatantly incorrect, for example. However, the site is starting to build some more interesting content, such as commercials for the old TMNT toys.

Possibly the most mindboggling effect of this is how the devil Mirage was won over by these yahoos. My guess is that it has to do with something that I'm going to elaborate on at a later date.

As I said before, this is but a minor violation. Hiring Peppercom is far from the least infuriating occurance to taint the brand this year. Keep your eyes posted here for more rants.