The intent was to get you and me and about a Hundred Million other people to know about Aqua Teen Hunger Force. If you don't call this a success, you have very high standards for advertising efficiency.
That was not your initial argument:
My contention is that they were designed to provoke a police response, that would get Aqua Teen Hunger Force front page positioning.
The fact that the police response greatly multiplied the exposure was just added bonus (well worth the payoff that TBS is handing to Boston officials to make them feel better for making fools of themselves).
What the ad campaign was designed to do was create a buzz on the street for those in 'the know'. And judging from the previous couple weeks of YouTube responses to the lite-brite mooninites, it was working as designed.
And then... a notoriously incompetent city government got involved.
Ohh and BTW, had they been bombs, they would have gone off about 2 weeks ago.