Full FeedCES 2008: Gizmodo is not funny
Everyone likes a good prank once and awhile, but when that prank gets out of hand it becomes annoying and eventually down right mean.
But I must admit when someone hands me a gadget with the potential to create havoc, well monkey business is bound to ensue. That’s what happened when the crew of Gizmodo were given a device to play with at this year’s CES 2008. A device called the TV-B-Gone from Make Magazine that is capable of shutting off any LCD Television nearby at the push of a button.
The prank was the random outages of display screens throughout CES2008 disrupting gaming competitions, speeches and presentations. See for yourself below:
Though some found Gizmodo stunt funny at the time, others seemed unimpressed according to John Biggs blog on CrunchGear.
“I didn’t want to weigh in on this because I know all the parties involved, I used to run Gizmodo, and I understand the impetus behind this prank. This is a nasty hack performed by punchy, hungover kids that, as we see, got the CE world’s attention,” Biggs wrote. “... I may just say I’m a blogger next year just so I can avoid the scrum at the press room where thousands line up to get free lunches and read email (international journos with spotty credentials fighting for crappy lunch boxes, I would say, is more despicable than Gizmodo’s actions but, as we know, journalists love them some free lunch).”
Biggs called Gizmodo’s latest post entitled Confessions was a bit of a “calculated risk.”
Gizmodo’s conefession explained their prank resulted in not being able to stop playing with the TV-B-Gone clickers.
“And when MAKE offered us some TV-B-Gone clickers to bring to the show, we pretty much couldn’t help ourselves. We shut off a TV. And then another. And then a wall of TVs. And we just couldn’t stop,” Brian Lam posted on Gizmodo. “It was too much fun, but watching this video, we realize it probably made some people’s jobs harder, and I don’t agree with that (Especially Motorola). We’re sorry.”
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Right or wrong aside, Make couldn’t have asked for better exposure than this. Hiring a PR agency to ‘stage’ a publicity stunt that managed to get the attention that this has received would have cost them big bucks - I bet they are very grateful to the Gizmodo guys.
on January 16, 2008 at 10:55 AM - LINKPerhaps. But I still don’t think the other guests cared to have their presentations interrupted.
on March 1, 2008 at 12:15 PM - LINK