Boston brought to a halt by guerilla ad campaign...
 

So Turner Broadcasting used guerilla advertising to promote their show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force in Boston (and some other cities too). The ad campaign involved LED electronic displays placed in several locations in the city, including under overpasses and on bridges. This morning, a concerned citizen noticed one of the devices and called in to the police to report the electronic equipment as a bomb, which resulted in city and state law enforcement and Homeland Security getting involved and tracking down several of these suspected bombs. Roads were closed, parts of the subway were shut down, and the Boston Harbor was closed.

Under different circumstances, Id find such an ad campaign amusing.

However, placing electronic devices under bridges and overpasses is not a smart move post 9/11. Its also unfortunate that no one who understood the Adult Swim cartoon reference let the authorities in on the joke (though local bloggers caught on quickly). Now the artist who created the displays has been arrested. Craziness!

Check out a video of the devices here (about halfway down):
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ide..._of_the_m.html

.............................

Heres an article describing the day:

Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Suspicious objects found throughout Boston after morning bomb scare
By John R. Ellement, Mac Daniel, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The discovery of suspicious objects on bridges, near a medical center, underneath an interstate, and in other crowded public places has ignited fears across Boston, snarling traffic and sending state and local police scrambling across the city.

None of the suspicious objects have been determined to be bombs. It was not immediately clear if the incidents were connected or part of some elaborate hoax.

A law enforcement source who has been briefed on the investigation said officials have found commonality among some, but not all, of the objects recovered by Boston, state and transit police throughout the day.

None of the objects examined by police contained explosives, the source said.

Governor Deval Patrick told the Associated Press: Its a hoax -- and its not funny.

Investigators have found that at least two of the packages that were similar -- both were composed of electronic circuit boards with LED lights attached. No one has called to claim responsibility for any of the items, the law enforcement source said.

The source said it appears the object scrutinized by State Police on the Longfellow Bridge may not be connected to the objects that were found with electronic equipment. The item on the Longfellow Bridge may have been left behind some time ago by a bridge maintenance crew.

The Coast Guard has closed the Charles River to all water traffic from the Museum of Science to the locks where the river flows into Boston Harbor because of the reports of bombs on several bridges, according to Chief Petty Officer Scott Carr.

This afternoon, investigators found a device on the BU Bridge today similar to the Sullivan Square package that forced the closure this morning of northbound Interstate 93, said Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for state fire marshal Stephen Coan, whose office oversees the State police Bomb Squad.

Like the item found at the Sullivan Square station, the BU package was attached to the underpinnings of the bridge.

It was not an explosive device, she said of the suspicious item found on the BU Bridge.

State police bomb experts examined another suspicious item -- similar in construction to the items found at Sullivan Station and on the BU Bridge -- that was found attached to the Longfellow Bridge, which spans the Charles River from Boston to Cambridge.

Boston police are separately investigating suspicious items at Columbus and Stuart streets and near the New England Medical Center.
Storrow drive was closed at 2 p.m., according to State Police. Thirty minutes later police opened one eastbound lane to traffic.

According to Boston police, traffic from Charles Street is being blocked from entering Storrow Drive while several law enforcement agencies investigate more suspicious objects.

The MBTA suspended service on the Red Line for about 15 minutes between Park and Kendall stations. By 2:35 p.m., the T resumed service on the line.

Some people have allowed their unreasonable fears to overtake their reasonable minds. The 'concerned citizen' should realize there is a difference between a light-bright and a dirty bomb.

Read and repeat:

Anyone who's seen Aqua Teen knows who Ignignokt is.

And if you don't know who the Mooninites are, or what Aqua Teen is...or you don't watch Adult Swim period...well then, your life must be very sad.

I imagine those sad people are the people who thought Ignignokt was a bomb.

Actually, I've seen Aqua Teen Hunger Force and I've never heard of Ignignokt.

Or the Mooninites.

Man - the Arabs (well, the terrorist ones anyway) are probably pissing themselves laughing.

Yea, the reaction is way overblown.

How did they break the law, exactly? What could they have differently to NOT break the law (and still do something in the same vein as this)? The devices in no way resemble a bomb, or any other unsafe device... so what did they do wrong?

That was definitely a stupid and poorly thought out ad campaign. Has nothing to do with fear nor overblown reactions. If you leave a bag unattended anywhere it is also grounds for suspicion. The authorities have to respond, otherwise they would be negligent. It could have been a decoy to test response time.

If those had been bombs then people would be all pissed that no one called it in.

Better safe than sorry.

I can understand the bomb squad being called in, but it should be a non-story for them to figure out that LED signs are not bombs. If every suspicious package call ended like this there wouldn't be enough reporters to cover all of them. Criminal charges are outrageous; typical politicians looking for blood, anyone to blame but themselves for the world's problems, not that LED signs have anything to do with the world's problems.

Well, in that case, I guess we know the response time is what, two weeks? :lol: But when they respond, they respond!

How is this a stupid ad campaign? They are getting so much press. For FREE.

In another time and place, I'd find that quite hypocritical. carry on America.

Is this really necessary? This has nothing to do with gun control. Assume this happened in a world without gun control issues and....wait a minute, I'm against guns because their very existence proves that some people fear the rare criminal encounter so much that they feel it's necessary to carry a deadly weapon with them at all times. I'm afraid your post, which was intended for me, should actually be for you.

/threadjack

Yeh, the advertisers fucked up big time. Granted, a bit of an over-reaction calling it a bomb, but you can't go doing stuff like that with at least giving some clue somewhere as to what your doing.

Leaving random suspicious looking stuff over a city tends to go badly.

Can't say I think the advertisers did anything wrong... their goal was viral marketing. How many people have googled their site as a result of this campaign?

I'd say, you should expect to see a lot more like this now. And, you should expect the authorities to continue to erode your freedoms in the name of "security". On behalf of the terrorists: BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Well, it's on the same lines as not being allowed to carry handlotion and a lighter onto a plane.(which by the way, I did, inadvertently, when a lighter was shoved into my purse-so much for 'security', but it was nice not having to bum a light at the Atlanta airport!:D )I mean, really....hand lotion or shampoo not allowed? If the lighter was discovered, would I have been arrested?:rolleyes:
Just make TBS pay reparations for the misunderstanding and personnel time and call it a day....

Can't stop laughing at this, then this section of a CNN article really tore me up...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/01/boston.bombscare/
So, they won't get caught on anything. They don't meet the requirement of intending to cause panic. Sounds like they have a judge with a brain in his head. I hope they spank the DA for being such a moron as to actually prosecute these guys. It was part of a national multi-city ad campaign, not a freakin' bomb hoax. That moron.

Also: somewhere, a marketing guy for Cartoon Network just got a fat raise and a promotion. So much free press... priceless.

The who, what, and where:
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/02/01...evens.whdh.jpghttp://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/02/01...device2.ap.jpghttp://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/02/01...n2.zebbler.jpg

And yes, those are dreadlocks on a white guy- pretty long ones, too, from another pic I saw. lol

"It's clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location," Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles...31182009990001

John Grossman, you are an idiot.

Uh...wouldn't it be more feasible if that's the intent, to actually make them LOOK like bombs? Some people need to get reality check-ups.
I can understand the post 9/11 mania to an extent....like the 'red scare' of the 50's and early 60's, where everyone thought everyone else was a communist spy....but virtually an entire major US city comes to a halt for...LED's??? Remind me to never drop my watch or cell phone....I don't want to be on the 11 o'clock news....:rolleyes: Oh wait...at least then I'd know where my watch or cell phone went:lol:

If you stop to think about the state of things today, you'd see that it's all about what rights do you want to fight for. For some, apparently, only SOME rights are considered important anymore and to hell with the rest. That is a fools dream because every right is just as important as all the others.

Give some up for your safety from terrorism, you've already admitted that you trust the government more than your fellow citizen anyway. It won't be long before the rest of the rights we supposedly have can also be infringed because of 'compelling government interest'.

Wow. Just, wow. You should watch the Mooninite episodes of ATHF. They're priceless.

I had some friends who went as the Mooninites for Halloween a couple of years ago. They won the Best Costume award at our Halloween party, despite the fact that their "costumes" were only posterboard cutouts of Ignignokt and Err. If they were LED lightboards...that would be amazing.

I still contend that a life without Mooninites is a sad life indeed...though one could certainly argue that if someone has no idea who the Mooninites are, they don't know what they're missing--which is a lot of laughter.

Everything about this incident makes my brain twitch and scream. This country needs to pull its head out of its ass and figure out what is important and what isn't. Shampoo on airplanes isn't a threat. Lite Brite cartoon characters hung around the city aren't a threat. Calling out Turner Broadcasting and Cartoon Network and all of them for endangering a city and shutting it down is juvenile at best, and ignorant at worst.

If I were a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer, I would be laughing my balls off at the level of idiocy the US has descended to. People are looking to be scared and looking to be reassured that they're safe. Watching bomb squads dealing with these "devices" is laughable, as anyone who has ever watched Adult Swim will gladly tell you. It wasn't reckless. It wasn't dangerous. It was different and clever.

I'd quote from Dune, but will already did it.

I know nothing about bombs, except they sometimes go Boom.
I am certain if I were looking at these objects in person, I could tell they are not bombs. I am a layman. Do the Boston Bomb Squad personal receive ANY training.
I can't believe that this is a controversy. I hope they go after the DA for malicious prosecution.

Owning a gun isn't a right, the right is that of a well regulated militia to bear arms (a.k.a., the National Guard). You're defending a misunderstanding.

How many times are you going to bring this up in threads that have nothing in the world to do with gun control or gun rights? Don't you have other interests? Don't you have political opinions that don't stem from your belief that every person has the right and responsibility to own a gun? You know that this only ends up going in circles again and again and again.
You know I don't trust the government at all, I do everything I can to stop potential dictators like Bush from gathering power and stripping everyone of their Constitutionally protected rights, and then you suggest that I allow rights to be infringed because of 'compelling government interest'? I think that Arab terrorists had nothing to do with 9/11, and that Bush should be behind bars for spying on his fellow Americans.

Please understand, I belive:
1) The US is headed away from liberty, and the current administration is speeding up the process by commiting unspeakable acts, including the loss of habeaus corups, misleading congress, and bypassing the FISA courts. We need to defend our freedom from those who would try and replace liberty with the illusion of security.
-and-
2) The Second Amendment ("A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.") protects the right to bear arms for members of a well regulated militia, not every member of the populace, and I recognize that this law was written right after militias won the war against the British military. The idea that every person should be allowed to have a gun is like the idea that every country should have nuclear weapons. It's MAD (both nuts and Mutually Assured Destruction).

Will, you're wrong and the worst thing about it is you KNOW you're wrong, but you're so god awful bent on trying to do what you THINK is right for society, you've adopted a perverted interpretation of an individual right and THAT has opened the door for groups and politicians to do the exact same thing to the OTHER INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS!!!!

Until you partisan groupies understand that neither the dems or reps have your INDIVIDUAL rights and liberties as their priority in office, you'll slowly lose them, like we have been for the last 150 years. It's nothing more than sacrificing freedom for temporary safety, you get none and deserve neither.

It's official: the terrorists have won.

I think I'll go call the police and tell them I think the banana sitting in the office kitchen that seems to belong to no-one might be about to explode. Just in case. You never know. :hmm:

I don't know I'm wrong, I'm almost certian I'm right. There is a big difference. The wording is clear, anyway. No where do words like "individual" or "populace" appear. The people of which they speak belong to a well ergulated militia, and you're threadjacking again.

Did you notice how you were able to skip through the part of my post where I asked why you have to turn every thread into a gun threard? Dude, expand your mind a little tiny bit. This thread has absolutely nothing to do with gun control at all. Nothing. Nada. This is about Cartoon Network doing something funny. Or idiots who are afraid of their own shadow. Or something, anything to do weith the OP. This is not a gun control thread. You came in to take a shot at me about gun control and ignored the reason this thread exists.

Please, please, cut it out. It's fricking annoying. I don't even care what you think about gun rights anymore. I know where I stand, and if I felt like going through this dance again, I'd be in a gun control thread instead of this one (well more likely in addition to this one).
Nice try, but I'm above being effected by old quotes that don't apply to me. I defend my freedom with great vigilance, and I deserve it as soon as I preserve it; I've earned my freedom time and again and I will continue to do so as long as I draw breath.

yeah, who cares about what some old guys said 225 some years ago. they could NEVER have foreseen the events happening today. :rolleyes:

people who only defend a portion of the bill of rights dont' deserve any of them. point blank and period.

You'll also notice that, although I made a reference to guns, I've also been talking about ALL of our rights and how they matter.

Littering?


You two wanna go to your neutral corners...or at least take it outside. (meaning a thread that was started for that discussion)

Back to the hilarious subject at hand, here's a youtube clip of the press meeting about hair :p

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zx2ytr2Oyv4"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zx2ytr2Oyv4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

And just in case there's any question about how ridiculous this whole thing is, here's a video which shows them putting up the viral ads, which gives a nice clear view of what decidedly does NOT look like any sort of bomb...

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/doD_VpT_yAY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/doD_VpT_yAY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Ben Franklin quotes aside, will says freedom is the product of constantly defending our rights in their entirety; you say freedom should be defended constantly and entirely, and to be aware of those who would strip us of our rights. Where in this does an argument errupt?

Stop arguing for the sake of arguing, and give this threadjacking stuff a rest.

Ok...... so I'm reading all these posts and noone I have seen has stated the obvious to paranoidal, conspiritorial minds like mine.

Very simple question: Who called the police and reported these things??

Possible answer: The very people who put them there. Does anyone know who called, what the callers motives truly were and so on.

Motive: Perhaps they called all the cities and Boston just happened to be the only one who reacted so hugely.

If you wanted to draw attention to your program, I'd say whipping up a HUGE city into a frenzy like Boston had, will do it. It gets the show nationwide attention, and attention, good or bad = ratings and ratings = money and success in TV world.

But from the first post on that was what I saw and believed. The people behind the show were behind Boston's reaction.

ah this makes me laugh

it's harmless activity like this that really shows how far we've fallen

humanity reminds me of those fainting goats

^^^ I would NOT be surprised at all.
Funny thing about authority (ie, police depts)-you can pretty much predict how they're going to handle things....work it to your advantage and watch the fun begin.(Not knocking police at all-some of my best friends are cops :D)
Just sayin...know the protocol and work it, baby!

Does anyone else thing those things look like the old Hasbro Lite-Brite toy from the 80's?

Oh my God, I'm old!!!

On another board, someone claimed that permission had been obtained to place these objects. I doubt that, but am waiting on a reference.
Anyone else heard this??/

Yeah, that's basically all it is.

I know, I'm old too.

all i know is that after this precendent has been set, if i were going to release ricin or anthrax or whatnot via a dirty bomb in a city, i'd put the shit in the back of a litebright and make it look like viral advertising. hide it right out in the open.

Another great possibility..... send enough decoys in, make the people get tired of hearing about things and lower the defenses..... then bang.

You're old?

You're old?!?

I had my Lite-Brite sometime in the late sixties...early seventies. :D

And...if memory serves...I still have it. Up in my attic. :thumbsup:

My mom sold mine at a garage sale.