Posted on 02/01/2007 5:02:47 AM PST by Puppage
BOSTON -- Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.
Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.
"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick.
Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said.
Police said only that they were investigating where the device came from. The Department of Homeland Security said there are no credible reports of other devices being found elsewhere in the country.
An angry Mayor Thomas Menino said a stiff penalty will be pursued against whoever was responsible for the devices.
"It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.
Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.
The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.
Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.
The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.
Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as well.
Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.
"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."
Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.
"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.
The surreal series centers on a talking milkshake (Master Shake), fries (Frylock) and a meatball (Meatwad).
The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err -- who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.
Time was when showing a cartoon figure giving the finger would've been enough to get 'em busted.
It just goes to show how clueless and disconnected these nitwits are.
And doesn't that show they are trying to advertise sound like an odds-on winner? Drivel, I say.
Boston Scare Caused by Official Overreaction and Lack of Common Sense
Most TV is either drivel, propaganda, or a sales pitch. I rarely watch it.
In addition, how were the police supposed to KNOW this was for a cartoon? It's a little-watched late night show which I only marginally knew about, and I didn't know who the characters were. Had I see one of these devices, I probably would have reported it myself.
The individuals involved in this stunt should be harshly punished with jail time and heavy fines.
Turner Broadcasting should also be punished. Turner is so desperate for viewers it will stoop to any stunt to try and get attention.
If they really looked like bombs, it's pretty scary that they were in ten different cities for up to three weeks and nobody noticed and called.
But looking at the device last night, it didn't look at ALL like a bomb. And all the panic seems to have been caused NOT by anybody who saw the device (except the worker that found it), but by the news reports and shutting down traffic, such that people who did not SEE the devices had visions of dangerous bombs, or pipe bombs, etc..
I'm not ready to excuse the marketing firm (I do hope they didn't put the marketing guys in jail when they arrested them), but I'm also not ready to simply say that if you do something that makes the police overreact, you have to go to jail for it.
The city should have an ordinance against placing advertising on public spaces without a license. If they do, we can prosecute for that violation, and the fine can reflect the cost to the city of the violation, which can include EVERYTHING -- that's just my opinion.
But if there is no law prohibiting such advertising, then I don't think we should fine them or throw people in jail just because someone misunderstood.
However: the guy that found the first one should be rewarded. I don't care that it was a hoax, we need to encourage people to report stuff like this if it looks suspicious. We don't need ordinary citizens to look back at this incident and say "well, this is probably just another hoax, and I don't want to be a laughingstock".
I'd also love to know WHEN TNT,Cartoon channel, or the ad agency first contacted a law enforcement official to tell them the devices were theirs, and whether they instead had a big meeting of lawyers while this was going on. It seems someone could have put this scare to an end pretty quickly with the right call.
Three weeks to notice a marketing campaign? I'd say that is piss poor marketing. I'd go even further. They intended the consequence they got. They must be catering to morons.
But everybody knows now. Almost every article written about this includes a 1-paragraph blurb about the show and characters, and the network it's on. You can't buy that kind of advertising.
And now the news is even telling us when the movie is coming out. And don't discount the street cred they'll get from the key demographic based on their ability to make the police overreact.
If we fine them a million per device, it's probably cheap advertising for them.
They claim it was a publicity stunt gone bad, and in many respects it was -- like the guy is in jail :o But in terms of exposure, they hit the jackpot. Now if they'd only do something about that Rolling Rock commercial.
Another botched joke out of Massachusetts!
I hear ya. The offensive message seems to be lost on most.
Gov. Deval Patrick needs a better education as to the definition of "hoax".
...................Educated in the public school system? the governor does not compute the English language.
I wonder how cheap it will be if they end up doing some time in the state penitentiary.
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