A new poster for the forthcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie shares a shockingly obvious and unfortunate connection to the horrific images of burning towers in New York City on 9/11.
The new Michael Bay-produced film — based on the popular '80s and '90s franchise of the same name — is set for a Sept. 11 release in Australia. Paramount Pictures created this movie poster, which shows the turtles hurtling away from a burning building, above the date "September 11":
The new promotional image was published to Paramount's Twitter and Facebook streams Tuesday, according to the Verge. It was quickly retracted after users reacted angrily to the combination of the release date and the four turtles jumping out of the exploding skyscraper.
To sum up the public's reaction on Twitter, if this was a legit marketing decision, it was a complete failure -- or an insensitive but genius ploy.
How does this make it past marketing? Ninja turtles poster invokes 9/11 attack: http://t.co/UXLHwq7GUr— Jessica Durando (@Jessica Durando)1406634742.0
So, the TMNT poster with the unfortunate image and September 11 release date might actually be real? @ParamountAU, you need to address this.— Michael Ross (@Michael Ross)1406640325.0
Others called the reaction over the top and said people were being too sensitive, or theorized the poster might be a fake (the U.S. release date is August 8).
Oh my god, this world is too sensitive — Retracted TMNT poster puts exploding building above Sept. 11 release date http://t.co/fYDXR4L2DL— Doney den Ouden (@Doney den Ouden)1406647024.0
Guys that TMNT exploding September 11th poster is fake, the movie comes out August 8th.— Akira (@Akira)1406647422.0
Well now hold on. Unless that TMNT poster is for an overseas release, that poster is probably a gross joke. Film comes out 8/8 in US.— John Moe (@John Moe)1406639652.0
What do you think?