Jim Samples has resigned as head of Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:TWX) Cartoon Network, following the botched Adult Swim marketing effort that caused a huge bomb scare in Boston.

In a statement, Samples, an affable guy whom I interviewed a few years ago for a feature about Adult Swim for Bloomberg Markets magazine, took blame for the incident. I hope this doesn't lead to further management shakeups.

Adult Swim is small but very weird corner of the Time Warner media empire. One time, the people at Adult Swim hoisted a pirate flag over their building. Samples, whose office was nearby, had to tell them to take it down. These aren't typical employees and Time Warner is smart enough to leave them be for the most part, because the unit's shows are phenomenally popular among young people.

Time Warner's brass has shown enough contrition for the misunderstanding over the marketing campaign for the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" movie. The campaign was a stupid idea, particularly in the age of heightened security awareness because of worries about terrorism. This certainly wasn't done maliciously.

None of this publicity will hurt the film or Adult Swim's ratings. If anything, it will make the weird cartoons seem even more anti-establishment in the eyes of their target audience.

Cartoon Network head quits following Boston fiasco; I hope that's the end of it originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.