February 1, 2007
Bostonists freak out on cartoon signs, Seattlests don't even notice...
Flickr photo by Tifotter
Have you seen the story about the guerilla marketing campaign gone bad? Seems like Boston practically shut down the entire city over some small magnetic signs that were part of a promotion for the T.V. show Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Cartoon Network. Now we're not calling anybody "dumb" per se; but "sophisticated electronic device consistant with an Improvised Explosive Device"? Give us a fucking break. The thing looked like the front of a Lite-Brite with a lit cartoon character on it and a couple AA batteries stuck on the back. We know the country is on edge - but damn! Turner Communications is now backpedalling like crazy and giving written apologies to anyone who'll take them, including the Mayor of Boston and the Attorney General - both of which aren't having it. Hell, they even arrested this guy for putting up the signs. Our advice? Chill out Boston, we've had those hanging up here for weeks and didn't even notice...
And Turner, stop apologizing and give your marketing agency a damn promotion!
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What's worse? Overreacting to these things or an entire city who isn't even perceptive enough to notice them?
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Ha, overreacting. To my mind, it's just a commercial. The whole city doesn't freak out when a new billboard goes up - Why should we care about this ad, beyond the whole bomb thing?
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Have you seen a photo of the sign? It' a black PCB with a load of LEDs on it and some batteries at the bottom. You would have be a total moron to think it was a bomb for even a millisecond..
Apparently there are a lot of them in Boston.
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Does anyone know where these are located?
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In the Seattle area, authorities thought the devices were “obviously not suspicious.”
“In this day and age, whenever anything remotely suspicious shows up, people get concerned — and that’s good,” King County sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said. “However, people don’t need to be concerned about this. These are cartoon characters giving the finger.”
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Suki, I have one located in my living room. Liberated near 4300 University Way at 21:30 on 31 JAN 07.
Ebay yanked it after 2.5 days and 13,000+ pageviews, citing trademark infringement.