BOSTON PARALYZED BY AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE

[mburbank]

Well, at least they arrested a couple of hippie art students. It can't be all bad.

[El Blanco]

Please tell me Menino has a speach for this. Seriously, he makes Bush look like Pericles.

[theapportioner]

Mumbles Menino

[mburbank]

This is SO embarassing. Menino and the attorney general are loudly insisting it was the INTENT of TNT that the devices appear to be bombs and cause a bomb scare.

They are covering their embarassment by yelling, and looking stupider and stupider by the moment.

[El Blanco]

I saw a picture of the two guys responsible for this.

Do they really look like they'd be capable of a terrorist act this big? I'm shocked they pulled off a guerilla marketing campaign.

What do you think Jack Bauer would do if he were facing off with these two?

[Dixie]

I am finding this to be hilarious.

[mburbank]

They refused to answer any questions from the press that were not about seventies haircuts.

[Dixie]

That press conference was classy. They came out with an objective. I like these guys.

[FartinMowler]

How come I didn't hear them mention the Amber alert stuff?

[Preechr]

So, somehow, Turner is financially responsible for all the money the city spent on hunting those things down and removing them?

This reminds me of the runaway bride from, what... two years ago or so... She had to agree to pay "back" a portion of the money spent to find her. Why? Did she ask to be looked for? As far as I'm concerned, nearly all of the money the government spends is wasted, so why the recent trend toward making someone pay government expenses if the foolishness makes the news? Did those guys write bomb threats? Did they phone the TV stations with fake Arabic accents? ...or did the city simply over-react and wind up looking stupid?

The "bomb scare" was not a hoax. It was an attention getter. I'm not even going to say it was in poor taste, because it sure got attention, which was it's job. When it comes to marketing, it seems to me that taste is not a factor.

[Ant10708]

No one thought they were bombs in the other cities they were put in.

[Preechr]

I heard the Atlanta PD was actually out today looking for them with no luck.

[mburbank]

Preech, I could not agree with you more.

Turner took out a full page ad in the Boston globe apologizing.

On the other hand, the degree of publicity the city of Boston gave them is worth way more than the money they're paying Boston and the ful page ads.

But, I agree it's absurd to think they in some way owe it. It's regretable that there was a panic, and a real refrlection of the culture of fear we've created for ourselves. But that was not the intent, and I think it's absurd to say they should have relaized putting little battery operated light bright boards in hidden locations around Boston, infrastructure or otherwise, might incite a full scale freak out.

And arresting the wee little arty boys is beyond the pale.

[El Blanco]

What is actually pissing me off about this is Menino and the AG talking about how much this cost and this being a case of corporate greed and corruption.

How is the Big Dig going, you stammering dego fuck?

[mburbank]

A guerilla marketting stunt that hires art students is a piss poor example of corporate greed. Menino et al have egg all over their faces and the cluelessness gap is so huge they still don't get that the louder they squawk, the stupider they look.

The best thing they could do right now is state that it's obvious this was not the intent, but first responders have to take things seriously, it's an unfortunate, unintended misunderstanding and the city of Boston is grateful for any help TNT feels like giving.

And for heavens sake, drop the charges! It just costs money to press charges, even we've already blown enough.

[kahljorn]

lol i saw this on the news they were pulling a mooninite out of what looked like some wreckage ;(

Didn't the runaway bride leave a message she had been kidnapped or something? Usually people look for you when you've been kidnapped.

[Geggy]

http://news.bostonherald.com/images/localRegional/hoaxfrontpage02022007.jpg (http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=180601)
http://news.bostonherald.com/images/localRegional/hoaxpg5ltp02022007.jpg
CULPRITS

[Preechr]

They had already been looking for her, so she lied and then ran away some more, IIRC. She freaked out and made a bad decision on top of a few other ones. Unfortunately for her, probably the most difficult time of her life got caught up in the Jerry Springer grist mill that is our modern tabloid media.

[sspadowsky]

I look forward to seeing the episode they create to make fun of this whole mess.

I hope that the mayor and everyone else who freaked out are made aware that they're being laughed at for being the neurotic, paranoid pussies that they are.

[kahljorn]

The lady sounded like a dumb bitch when I read the story, maybe you got something else out of it though. I hate dumb bitches, they are the people who fuck the world up. And I'm not just talking about female dumb bitches either.

[Grislygus]

I hate to break it to you guys, but only us internet people think they look stupid. Everyone in the real world is outraged at those punk teenagers and their wires and batteries that everyone knows look like bombs.

[Ant10708]

I wish I was able to steal two of these. One for myself and one to sell on ebay. They are going for crazy prices.

[maggiekarp]

I hate to break it to you guys, but only us internet people think they look stupid. Everyone in the real world is outraged at those punk teenagers and their wires and batteries that everyone knows look like bombs.

Uh... I hate to break it to you, but it's not the 90's anymore. A lot of folks (I'd be bold enough to say most folks) are on the internet these days. Besides that, you don't have to know what a harbl is to see a light-brite cartoon flipping you off and realize the cops overreacted.

I guess what I'm saying is, it's not internet and cartoon nerds against the rest of the world, but a generation gap sort of thing. Baby boomers vs Generation Meh.


Smiling handcuffed art students is pretty surreal to me, though. Seems like most people are scowling in the news.

[xbxDaniel]

It means a lot of publicity for ATHF though. They got more press from this than the actual advertising.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Ok, so I'll play devil's advocate here....

I get the fact that Boston totally overreacted to all of this, and they certainly looked kind of foolish. But at the same time, if you or I went around sticking electronic boxes on bridges in cities, we would get put through the ringer. These guys can smile and laugh it off, because they have a media empire and a fleet of lawyers behind them.

And it also isn't fair to say well it was OBVIOUSLY just a cute hoax, it was OBVIOUSLY just ATHF. What % of Americans had ever heard of that cartoon before this happened? This board might be the target demographic for ATHF, but most folks have no idea what a Moonite giving the finger means. It could be from the Koran!

I also believe this is precisely what these guys wanted to have happen. You can't even have bbq on your street without a permit in most cases, so should we believe these guys thought it was legit to stick these random boxes up in public places?

[El Blanco]

These are the two guys that were paid some cash to place the boxes where they were told. They aren't the ad guys themselves.

Guerilla marketing is nothing new and this is not the first instance of strange objects dropped around cities........wait....


Are you sticking up for Boston?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Regardless, I doubt Turner will leave these guys out to dry for their idea. They'll be ok.

"“Guerrilla marketing never offends people, it never frightens people, and it never breaches ethics,” said Jay Conrad Levinson, the “father of guerrilla marketing” and author of “Guerrilla Marketing” books that have sold 14 million." LINK (http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=180353)

Honestly, is it so outrageous that people might get scared by random, blinking boxes in public places in a "post-9/11 world"? Do you care about your country, Blanco? :leegreenwood

And as for my concern for Boston, I only wish they had been bombs.

[mozz]

Wow. This really shows americas obsessive paranoia post 9/11.

[Ant10708]

It means a lot of publicity for ATHF though. They got more press from this than the actual advertising. I havn't even heard the movie mentioned once since this happened so I dunno.

[El Blanco]

9 other cities had these things without incident. Its Boston, not the whole country.

They weren' trying to offend, or frighten. It certainly wasn't unethical.

[maggiekarp]

Apparantly the guys who put the stuff up and their friends saw what was going on around 1 pm, but were told by the ad company to keep quiet until Turner found out what was going on at 5.

Huh.

[xbxDaniel]

It seems like Turner Broadcasting got a little nervous at first, though. I think they didn't intend for this scenario to occur. I say this because they put out a public apology on adult swim.com as well as removed ATHF-related material off the site after the incident. A lot of it's back online now, though, including the episodes. I know so many of you visit that site and all, you probably already knew that.

Did Turner know that this advertisement was going down like this?

[xbxDaniel]

I havn't even heard the movie mentioned once since this happened so I dunno.

But, they've mentioned the show itself, as well as when it airs and on what channel, almost everytime I've seen it displayed on the News.

[Seven Force]

I'm glad this ruckus is showing what a bunch of fear-mongering assholes the media has turned out to be these days.

[mburbank]

I work in Boston, and I think this is totally the product of the climate of fear we now live in.

"I also believe this is precisely what these guys wanted to have happen. You can't even have bbq on your street without a permit in most cases, so should we believe these guys thought it was legit to stick these random boxes up in public places?"

Kev, do you mean they wanted a whole lot of attention, with which I'd agree, or they thought these light brites would be mistaken for bombs, thereby garnering a lot of attention? Until Boston authorities back off the idea that the bomb scare aspect was intentional, they just look stupid.

I have a photo of one of the devices being removed in front of me as we speak. While I suppose it's possible a terrorist would make a bomb look harmless by putting lite bright thingies in teh shape of a schmematic guy fluipping you off as a clever diversion, and I do believe it's better safe than sorry, once the bomb squad blew up the first one they might have been pacidied by the fact that what remianed contained batteries, wires, lightbright things and no trcaes of explosives.

The overreaction is forgiveable. The continue outrage, I think, has a lot more to do with looking ridiculous and being angry about it than anything else, especially after Turner agreed to pay expenses right away.

The world is a dangerous place in a lot of ways. One inept guy with an explosive device in his shoe that he was unable to set off means from now on everyone takes off their shoes. Drunk drivers kill people every day, in numbers that exceed any sort of terrorist threat. It's tragic, horrible and avoidable. So we have laws and punishments, but we don't make everyone who gets behind the wheel prove they aren't drunk before they start the car, because while it would be far more effective, it would be a gross over reaction. I think a lot of what we do since 9/11 is way more about fear and posturing than about saftey.

[El Blanco]

We have check points for drunk drivers. Also, its simply impossible to stop every person that starts their car.

[Chojin]

There are BAC testers that replace your ignition, now - you blow into it to start your car. :imock

[Chojin]

fuck, we need a billowing american flag emoticon ;<

[Preechr]

I have a non-billowing one you can have

http://preechr.net/phpBB2/posting.php?mode=smilies