Tom Hanks (Splash News)
INSENSITIVE: The Twin Towers burn in an ad for “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” with Thomas Horn and Tom Hanks, at Ground Zero yesterday, infuriating local residents and workers. (
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Critics of a subway ad for a new 9/11 movie say the campaign hits incredibly close to home.
For one thing, the video promotions show the burning Twin Towers. Secondly, the video ads are playing mere yards from where the towers fell.
“We lost 10 guys that day,” said a firefighter from Ladder 9 in the East Village. “I won’t go see it. I saw the ad last night. I just can’t. People who live and work around here would be offended by those ads. That happened right here.”
VIDEO: BURNING TOWERS IN VIDEO AD AT WTC SITE
Backlash was already mounting against the new Warner Bros. film “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” a fictional account of a precocious preteen’s search for answers following the death of his father at the WTC.
Relatives of victims who perished in the attack were upset that previews of the film, which stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, give no warning of the graphic images or the emotional subject matter.
But running the ads near the sacred site is extremely dumb and incredibly insensitive, they said.
“Everybody’s trying to make money off 9/11,” said Bill Doyle, whose son, Joseph, was killed in the north tower.
“A lot of families got upset. Why couldn’t they warn us about this? I don’t think people really realized that these people are really still stressed.”
A Warner Bros. spokesman, Paul McGuire, said the movie company would pull the ads.
“It was never our intention to cause any distress,” McGuire said. “As a result, we will make best efforts to pull the material from pertinent locations.”
The MTA, which leases the locations where the ad has been running, declined to comment on the controversy.
A spokesman said the ad has been running on 40 digital panels throughout Manhattan, 500 posters on subways and buses and on 40 billboards across the city.
The MTA campaign ends Sunday.
But it was the movie ads near the World Trade Center site that got the worst reviews.
Video ads featuring the flaming buildings can be seen along Church Street at Murray, Vesey and Cortlandt streets and in front of the Millenium Hilton hotel.
Each location is in the shadow of new WTC construction.
“I’m not against the movie, but that ad in this area is insensitive,” said Pat Pallentino, 36, a concrete worker on a nearby construction site.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Pete Weber, 44, a construction worker. “People lost their loved ones right here. It shouldn’t be shown ever, especially here.”
Additional reporting by Jennifer Fermino