DISTURBED Ad For 'Immortalized' Album Pulled After On-Air Shooting Of TV Reporter, Cameraman

August 26, 2015

According to USA Today, a video ad for DISTURBED's new album, "Immortalized", was pulled by the band's record label following Wednesday's fatal on-air shooting of a TV reporter and her cameraman. The clip included footage from DISTURBED's video for the CD's first single, "The Vengeful One", in which a monstrous creature shoots several people at a television station.

In a statement to USA Today, Gogi Gupta, founder of Gupta Media, the online marketing agency that placed the DISTURBED ad, said: "The DISTURBED ad was served via retargeting. Retargeting ads are matched to previous web-browsing behavior, so only a visitor who had interacted with DISTURBED websites would be eligible to see this ad. The content of the video is irrelevant in this type of advertising because we know that they are DISTURBED fans. There was no use of key words or any other kind of targeting for this particular ad."

Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were shot to death during a live interview for WDBJ-TV, a CBS affiliate based in Roanoke, Virginia.

The suspected shooter, Vester Flanagan, a former reporter for WDBJ, apparently recorded the shooting himself, posted it on Facebook and then tweeted about it using his on-air name, Bryce Williams.

DISTURBED singer David Draiman explained "The Vengeful One" meaning. "Basically, 'The Vengeful One' is the personification of The Destroyer, the Angel of Death, Gabriel, or the Hand of God looking over humanity," he said. "In the song, it's the End of Days. Things are getting worse, and we're becoming more destructive. The media is playing everyone against one another and baiting the entire world. It's judgment day. This is that entity's voice speaking and passing judgment."

The song's animated video was made by filmmaker Phil Mucci, whose clip for HIGH ON FIRE's "Fertile Green" was named best video of 2012 by Revolver magazine. His other credits include KORN's "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)" and STONE SOUR's "Do Me A Favor".

The clip features DISTURBED's "The Guy" mascot. "The Guy is the embodiment of the Archangel Gabriel the Destroyer," Draiman explained to ARTISTdirect. "You are seeing him do his 'unholy work' in the video."

The video for "The Vengeful One" has been viewed more than 5.5 million times since its June 23 release.

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