Wednesday, January 31, 2007

The Lighter Side of Terrorism

Nothing like having a major US city brought to its knees by cartoon characters.

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Suspicious devices that led to bridge closings in Boston and forced the evacuation of a hospital building were part of a cable television channel's marketing campaign, officials said.

The devices were magnetic lights promoting ``Aqua Teen Hunger Force,'' a show on the Turner Broadcasting System's Cartoon Network, according to a statement from Time Warner's Turner broadcasting unit.

``They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities,'' the statement said. ``They have been in place for two to three weeks.''

Go Aqua Teen Hunger Force! Um, wait a sec, they've been in place for two or three weeks? So much for early intervention. Had they been a real threat Boston would now have some brand new pre-fab holes to make into ponds.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino promised whoever planted the devices faces heavy criminal penalties.

``Two to five years for each one of them,'' Menino said.

So you're going to jail advertisers, or more likely, the working people who were paid to put up the advertising because you weren't smart enough to know the difference between what basically amounted to a super-sized Lite-Brite and an actual bomb?

'Nuff said. Every time I think we've reached the peak of retardedness someone has to go one further.

14 comments:

Omnipotent Poobah said...

Good thing it wasn't Spongebob Squarepants soaked in WMD chemicals waiting to blow!

leftdog said...

It does seem that retardedness knows no bounds.

Women on the Verge said...

I heard someone say this morning that Turner Broadcasting should've notified authorities first.... here we go... now ads will need to be cleared through Homeland Security...anyone up for "Sprintime with Hitler"???

cls said...

What they will be going to jail for is making the City of Boston look like total doofuses. Can't have THAT, now can we?

Woozie said...

...not only were they up for 2-3 weeks, they were up for 2-3 weeks in 10 different cities. And as far as I know, Boston was the only one to notice them. If they had been real bombs...

Women on the Verge said...

My guess is no one paid any attention because Lite Brites aren't a particularly threatening sight... especially a Lite Brite with a cartoon figure flipping the bird...

Anonymous said...

Once again, America proves itself to be an easy target to the rest of the world.

Women on the Verge said...

Sigh...

ryk said...

Did you catch the press conference after the two guys they arrested made bail? It was hilarious. They told the reporters they would only answer questions about 1970s hair styles and stuck to it. Every time someone asked about this stupid overblown nonsense, they gave it the attention it deserved by just saying "I'm sorry, that's not a hair question." Boston city officials should be ashamed. The more they try to cover for their own idiocy by making this out to be a heinous crime, the longer they drag out their own humiliation.

Not Your Mama said...

I looooved their press conference.
These guys are going to end up with a million dollars and their own talk show.

Women on the Verge said...

What's not to love about a guy in dreads discussing the finer points of that great American tradition... the mullet??

S2 said...

I've learned a new phrase - "guerilla marketing". :)

My guess is that, even if they were noticed, the devices would probably have meant nothing to anyone who wasn't already familiar with "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".

In other words, they were preaching to the converted. This would seem to be a spectacular waste of advertising money - unless, of course, they were counting on making controversial headlines all along...

If so, it was a huge success. Even the BBC covered it on prime-time news.

Or am I being too cynical?

Women on the Verge said...

You okay mama???

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