i agree with devaul's sentiment that it's a relatively small **** up in the grand scheme of things. i don't think ti's anything that'll do any damage to their reputation - it will certainly get lost in the shuffle of the other moments of the night. the positive buzz over, say, Tracy Chapman's performance certainly outweigh anything negative about U2's Sphere Infomercial.
but it's an opportunity lost.
they should have done a full on performance of Atomic City, inside the building from the beginning, with the actual Vegas video in the background. **** - they should have started with the My Way segue and gone straight through to the end of the song.
what they did instead looked like they just took previously used footage and b-roll from the Atomic City video shoot and shoved it together.