Uh huh. So. Surely anyone who was going to blow something up would want to not hide their explosives, but show them off by attaching bright lights to them and putting them in highly visible locations?
Thank you Sensationalist Media, for freaking out my mother, who lives in Western Mass, so badly that she calls me and asks if I'm alright, and says that she was worried for my safety.
Apparently, she was listening to the radio on her way home from work and heard some asshole news-spewer reporting about possible terror threats and bombs. She was listening to this report at about 5:30 pm...which is a few hours after everyone figured out that it was a marketing campaign.. and yet the report she heard made no mention of what was actually going on, only continuing to spew alarmist, unnecessary phrases like "terror-threat", "bomb-scare" and "national security," over the airwaves. Nice. Way to keep this whole "Culture of Fear" alive and well.
In my opinion, once they figured out what was going on, news-jockeys should have stopped with the alarmist crap. But they didn't. They continued (and still are as of this morning) to fling around buzz words like "terrorist" and "bomb-scare", which in this day and age, makes ears perk up. Since everybody on the Eastern Seaboard seems to be talking about this, I consider this Guerilla Marketing Campaign to be insanely successful. If the goal of Boston is to punish Turner Broadcasting or Interference Inc. or whoever they choose as a scapegoat, the first step should probably be to stop talking about this, as it's only furthering the purpose of the campaign in the first place.
And another thing.. if the media had posted an image of the "device" as soon as they started their fear-inducing news coverage, countless numbers of college kids could have called in and identified the 'device" about 30 seconds after the image was shown. Obviously the law enforcement had to respond in the way they did, not knowing initially what was going on, but I really think the media and news coverage of this entire thing blew this way out of proportion, needlessly freaking people out.
I really hope Mayor Mumbles doesn't ban the Aqua Teen movie in Boston, due to the "fear and terror" that these LED posters inflicted on this city. I really don't want to have to drive to New Hampshire or Rhode Island to see a cartoon.
Ok... I'm jumping off my soapbox now. You see, I'm allergic to "stupid," and the whole city is infected right now. The cure for this is common-sense, and Boston seems to be running low. Maybe they'll find some in the Charles, as it was being patroled all night.
The following articles are a good summary of this whole ordeal:
Reposted from boston.com...
FROTH, FEAR AND FURY
Cartoon devices spur antiterror sweeps; two men are arrested
By Suzanne Smalley and Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | February 1, 2007
Enraged city and state officials yesterday readied a legal assault against those responsible for a guerrilla marketing campaign that dotted the city with small battery-powered light screens, setting off fears of terrorism and shutting down major roadways and subway lines for parts of the day.
Authorities last night were retrieving the 38 magnetic signs depicting cartoon characters under bridges, on storefronts, and outside Fenway Park, among other locations, that were installed as part of a Turner Broadcasting System marketing blitz for a Cartoon Network television show.
For much of the day, police treated the signs, which measure about 1 by 1 1/2 feet and feature protruding wires on one side, as potentially dangerous. But their investigation shifted when they happened to move one of the signs into a darker area. The sudden lack of sunlight prompted the lights forming the character's image to brighten into color. Sometime between 2 and 3 p.m., according to a public safety official, a Boston police analyst recognized the image as a cartoon character, and police concluded it was likely a publicity stunt.
Turner Broadcasting System Inc. apologized about 4:30 p.m. for the campaign, which included cartoon characters making an obscene gesture. "We really deeply regret that it was horribly misinterpreted to be a public danger, when all it was intended to do was to draw attention to a late-night television show," said Phil Kent, chairman and chief executive of the network, based in Atlanta. "This is not the kind of publicity we would ever seek."
The ordeal began around 8 a.m. when an MBTA worker spotted one of the devices affixed to an Interstate 93 ramp near Sullivan Square in Charlestown, forcing the shutdown of the northbound side of the Interstate and tying up traffic for hours. The State Police bomb squad blew the object apart with a water cannon at about 10 a.m. Then, in quick sequence just after noon, reports of similarly suspicious devices flooded police lines, sending anti terrorism forces to over a dozen locations in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville.
Last night, in Arlington, police arrested Peter Berdovsky , 27, an artist originally from Belarus, who told the Globe earlier in the day that he installed the signs for an ad firm hired by Turner Broadcasting. Berdovsky, who described himself as " a little kind of freaked out," faces up to five years in prison on charges of placing a hoax device in a way that causes panic and disorderly conduct.
Attorney General Martha Coakley's office announced late last night that a second suspect, Sean Stevens, 28, of Charlestown, had been arrested in the case about 11:30 p.m. Like Berdovsky, Stevens was charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct. Both suspects are scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. today in Charlestown District Court, said Coakley's office.
Turner Broadcasting's apology did little to assuage outraged officials in the three cities, where lawyers are preparing legal efforts to recoup the cost of the police mobilization.The deployment of scores of state, federal, and Boston police specialists, from bomb experts to terrorism analysts, exceeded $500,000, according to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Asked last night if Turner Broadcasting would reimburse the state and cities, Kent said, "We're certainly going to look at all the facts. We're a very responsible company and we try to do the right thing."
While police responded to the episode with swiftness and gravity, some Bostonians, especially younger adults, were amused by the spectacle and suggested authorities overreacted. But Coakley said the placement of the devices, on key infrastructure points, like highway ramps and under bridges, alarmed even seasoned investigators. "For those who responded to it, professionals, it had a very sinister appearance," Coakley said. "It had a battery behind it and wires."
Turner Broadcasting acknowledged that it never sought approval or alerted authorities that it would put up the signs. The company hired by Turner for the campaign, New York-based Interference Inc., declined comment. The signs, installed about two weeks ago, were part of a 10-city marketing campaign for the cartoon "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." They had not set off terrorism fears in New York, Los Angeles, or any of the other locations, and it was not clear whether they had been widely noticed in those cities. Yesterday Turner Broadcasting scrambled to alert police in the other cities to their presence.
Kent described a nerve-wracking sequence of events yesterday afternoon, when he received a call from one of the company's executives saying, "Turn on CNN." The news network was at the time featuring news of the bomb scares in Boston.
The company, realizing its campaign was probably the cause, went into damage control.
A visibly angry Menino said he would ask the Federal Communications Commission to yank TBS's broadcasting license for what he called "an outrageous act to gain publicity for their product."
The "Aqua Teen" program, launched seven years ago, chronicles the adventures of a talking box of French fries and his irreverent fast food pals. The images on the signs, including the characters with grimacing faces making the obscene gesture, are tiny video game characters that make cameos on the show, which airs during the Cartoon Network's late night programming block called "Adult Swim."
Menino and others said the campaign was especially reckless given Boston's sensitivity to terrorism threats, after planes that left Logan Airport on Sept. 11, 2001, were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center. Menino was also upset, he said, because top executives at Turner Broadcasting did not contact him directly to discuss what happened. The mayor said he did not receive a call from the company until about 9 p.m., and it was from a low-ranking press official.
"Give me a break. . . . It's all about corporate greed," Menino said, adding that he wanted make sure "not the guy we arrested today pays, but also the people in the boardroom have some obligation also on this issue."
But others were relishing the story, which rocketed around the Internet. Computer users e-mailed their friends links to video on YouTube that showed young people using telescopic poles to place the magnetic devices on recognizably Boston locations, as electronic music played in the background. Others went to eBay, where someone was already selling one of the magnetic devices, which was apparently removed from a South Boston location, with a minimum bid of $5,000.
Local residents expressed a range of reactions. April James , 32, said she saw one of the devices in a sandy area under the Longfellow Bridge about three weeks ago. "I kicked it first, then I picked it up," said James, a hairdresser who says she walks and jogs over the bridge nearly everyday. "It looked like a bomb. I picked it up, pulled the tape off it, and there were batteries, two on the top and three on the bottom."
James said she was not frightened by the device, which she said she returned to its spot near the sidewalk in front of the bridge, before continuing her walk. David Abel, Maria Cramer, Mac Daniel, John R. Ellement, Michael Levenson, Andrew C. Ryan, Maria Sacchetti, Donovan Slack, and Lisa Wangsness of the Globe staff and Globe correspondents April Simpson and Michael Naughton contributed to this report.
Reposted from www.boston.com...
Thursday, February 1, 2007
MOONINITE AFTERMATH
Following up on the lead provided them -- one can only assume -- by Brainiac, last night the Boston Globe interviewed Todd Vanderlin, the Bostonian blogger who first recognized the battery-powered contraptions that scared Bostonians yesterday for what they were: a marketing stunt.
Here's a funny line from today's Globe:
"Repeat after me, authorities. L-E-D. Not I-E-D. Get it?" one 29-year-old blogger from Malden wrote on his website, contrasting light emitting diodes with improvised explosive devices. When someone from Malden is less clueless than our city's police force and elected officials, it's time to get worried.
I don't have anything to add to the debate over whether or not Turner Broadcasting System and the guerrilla marketing outfit Interference Inc. should have known that these devices might have alarmed people. On the one hand, Boston police and city officials demonstrated how ignorant they are about pop culture, guerrilla marketing, and technology, and then got embarrassed, which is why they're so angry now. On the other hand, if you watch the video of the marketing crew installing the Mooninite devices on the BU Bridge, the Charles MGH T stop, and elsewhere, it does feel kinda like you're watching a terrorist plot on an unsuspecting Boston, and you can see why the police should have reacted (but not overreacted). So I'm on the fence. I don't, for example, find the T-shirt all that funny.
But one question remains: If these devices (as we've now heard) were installed in 10 other cities, including New York -- where a terrorist attack has actually happened -- as long as three weeks ago, why was Boston the only city to misinterpret their nature and freak out?
Perhaps the answer is that (a) Bostonians are far less sophisticated than urbanites in other parts of the country, including what we like to imagine is the backward Midwest, and, more controversially, (b) Bostonians are, in some sick, twisted way, jealous of New York because terrorists deemed one of its landmarks world-famous enough to be targeted for attack. Anyone who followed local news coverage in the days after 9/11 knows exactly what I'm talking about. But in analyzing the Mooninite affair, will any of our local pundits ever admit it?
Globe columnist Adrian Walker asked the right question today:
It is interesting that the same marketing campaign is underway in several other cities, including Chicago and San Francisco, without causing the mass freak-out it did here. But he immediately backed off from the embarrassing truth:
Maybe people are less observant there, or perhaps the billboards were planted in less conspicuous locations. That isn't clear yet.
OK... So Bostonians are more observant than folks in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, and besides -- the guerrilla marketers in those cities didn't really want to get the message out, so they hid the ads?
Reposted from boston.com...
MARKETING GAMBIT EXPOSES A WIDE GENERATION GAP
A graphic from the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim website showed the Err character from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" that was depicted on some of the devices found yesterday.
By Michael Levenson and Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | February 1, 2007
Todd Vanderlin, a 22-year-old design student, had just left Lucky's lounge in South Boston two weeks ago when he spotted what looked like an alien glowing on the side of a bridge. He pulled out his digital camera, photographed the illuminated plastic figure, and posted the images on his blog.
"I knew it was art, and I knew it was part of the Adult Swim ads, because I saw a billboard for the same thing," said Vanderlin, referring to a series of cartoons on cable television. "I see it in New York all the time."
But yesterday, a subway worker less attuned to the latest in underground marketing techniques called the police after spotting one of the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" cartoon characters on an overpass in Charlestown. The terrorism scare that followed touched off a massive response from police. When it was discovered that the electronic boards were only ads for a cartoon, serious condemnation flowed from Washington and Boston.
The episode exposed a wide generational gulf between government officials who reacted as if the ads might be bombs and 20-somethings raised on hip ads for Snapple, Apple, and Google who instantly recognized the images for what they were: a viral marketing campaign.
Among many in the young generation, reaction to the scare was smirking. "Repeat after me, authorities. L-E-D. Not I-E-D. Get it?" one 29-year-old blogger from Malden wrote on his website, contrasting light emitting diodes with improvised explosive devices.
Elected officials said there is no room for battery-powered contraptions on bridges and overpasses in a post Sept. 11 world.
"Scaring an entire region, tying up the T and major roadways, and forcing first responders to spend 12 hours chasing down trinkets instead of terrorists is marketing run amok," said US Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden. "It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt."
The ads were the latest incarnation of viral marketing, an advertising technique that is exploding in popularity as a way to reach younger consumers inured to the effects of traditional commercials. Like viruses, the ads are intended to spread on their own, creating word-of-mouth buzz by cropping up in unexpected places outdoors and on the Internet.
The company behind the ads for "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" was New York-based Interference Inc., whose chief executive officer, Sam Travis Ewen, was recently named one of Brandweek Magazine's Guerrilla Marketers of the Year. Ewen, who is in his 30s, has also put people on subways to brag about financial advisers and sent models into bars to sit with packs of cigarettes, waiting for someone to ask for a smoke.
Jamie Tedford -- senior vice president of media and marketing innovations at Arnold Worldwide, a Boston-based ad agency -- said there have been recent marketing campaigns that backfired. He cited Wal-Mart's decision to post a blog about a fictitious couple driving cross-country to different Wal-Mart stores. The company did not disclose that it had created the blog, angering some buyers.
But Tedford said he could not recall a recent marketing campaign involving objects that were mistaken for bombs or any campaign that had that caused a citywide panic. "You'd almost have to go back to 'War of the Worlds,' " he said, referring to the famous 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles. "We would all agree that this has crossed a line."
Turner Broadcasting System Inc., which broadcasts "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" on its Cartoon Network, could have saved itself the controversy by warning local authorities this was a marketing campaign, Tedford said. Boston was one of 10 cities around the nation where the guerilla ads appeared, but nowhere else did they cause security concerns and set a city on edge.
"The hardcore watchers of that show would know it's a character, but the majority of people in these cities do not know that," Tedford said. "Turner has failed on the disclosure issue." Turner executives said they did not forewarn local authorities, because they never imagined the campaign would cause alarm. "It was not our intent to do anything but get attention for a television series, period," Phil Kent, chairman and chief executive of Turner, said in an interview last evening.
That was apparent to many young consumers. After Vanderlin posted the images on his blog, Ewen shot him an e-mail: "I am glad you got one of the adult swim signs; there are others out there as well so keep looking up," Ewen wrote. He added he hoped people would take them as souvenirs.
Vanderlin, a student at Parson School of Design in New York City, said he was stunned to see police bomb squads swoop in and remove the characters. "It's so not threatening -- it's a Lite-Brite," he said, referring to a popular children's game. "I don't understand how they could be terrified. I would understand if it was a bunch of circuits blinking but it wasn't. . . . It was clearly a design."
Mac Daniel and Suzanne Smalley of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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