Paramount Pictures In Australia In Trouble For Making Ninja Turtles Movie Posters Evoking 9/11 Images

Daily mail – Paramount Australia has sparked outrage and ridicule after promoting the September 11 release of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film with a poster showing the heroes falling from an exploding building. The poster, which was shared through Paramount Australia’s official Twitter page, evoked anger due to its visual similarity to the 9/11 terror attacks, which killed 2,996 people in 2001. The film, which stars Megan Fox and Johnny Knoxville, is released in August in the United States and October in Europe, but its Australian release date comes exactly 13 years to the day after 19 hijackers took control of four airliners and carried out the deadly September 11 attacks. The controversial poster was shared on Paramount Australia’s Twitter page last night, and immediately drew negative comments. One of the Twitter replies, posted by user @MorningAfterKill said: ‘So who’s getting fired for this poster art? September 11? Exploding buildings? People falling out of them? Le sigh’. Another message by @AusFestivus added: ‘Guys. Sept 11 and exploding buildings is a bad look okay’, while a third tweet, by @yilmaz16, said: ‘Really 9/11? Jumping out of an exploding building?’ Paramount has since deleted its original message showing off the movie poster, and has tweeting several considerably less controversial images from the upcoming release.

Alright listen – the fact that the release date in Australia is actually September 11th does make this a pretty bonehead decision. The fact that it says September 11 on the poster and shows an exploding building is pretty questionable. But I think we all need to relax with the outrage every single time there’s an image or a reference thats even slightly reminiscent of 9/11.

Exploding buildings have been in movies before 2001 and they’re gonna be in movies after it. I don’t think Hollywood isn’t sympathetic to the events that happened 13 years ago because of something like this. I don’t think they are tasteless because of it. Again, is it a little stupid that you created a poster that said “September 11″ with an exploding building? Yea, somebody probably should have caught that. The reality of the matter is you always gotta have a head on a swivel when it comes to possibly upsetting people about 9/11. Its like blackface or hurting dogs – its going to cause instant outrage every time so its an automatic “avoid at all costs.” But not everything needs to be controversy. Not everything needs to be an outrage. We all remember and respect and mourn the people who died that day and we don’t need to tweet at Paramount Pictures saying they’ve offended the world to prove it. Its an unfortunate, untimely coincidence – its not the end of the world.

The most important thing is that there’s a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles summer blockbuster thats going to make a bazillion dollars while obese people eat buckets of popcorn and guzzle down gallons of soda. The American way of life has continued to prevail in this post 9/11 world. If terrorist attacks couldn’t stop that, a poster ain’t either.