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Boston Scare Caused By Marketing Mistake
WNBC Television ^ | 02/01/07 | Puppage

Posted on 02/01/2007 5:02:47 AM PST by Puppage

BOSTON -- Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.

Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.

"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick.

Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said.

Police said only that they were investigating where the device came from. The Department of Homeland Security said there are no credible reports of other devices being found elsewhere in the country.

An angry Mayor Thomas Menino said a stiff penalty will be pursued against whoever was responsible for the devices.

"It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.

Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.

The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.

Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.

The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.

Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as well.

Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.

"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."

Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.

"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.

The surreal series centers on a talking milkshake (Master Shake), fries (Frylock) and a meatball (Meatwad).

The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err -- who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: advertising; boston; hysteria; ignorethedevice; littering; postnobills
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To: Wormwood
No one can defeat the Quad laser.


101 posted on 02/01/2007 6:47:01 AM PST by Constitution Day (.)
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To: Deaf Smith
The various emergency response teams all around the country have spent tons of money (ours) on equipment & toys. These incidents gives them a chance to bring all their stuff out and go into full response mode and play with their toys. Doing such justifies their expenditures and increases in future budgets.

I don't even think they were trying to justify their budgets. I think they were just bored. Imagine: You're part of an "elite" squad, but you're rarely called into action. Your training is rarely effective, because it's all role-playing and academic. You have all kinds of government-provided toys to play with, but you can't take them out of the box. Wouldn't you jump at the opportunity to blow something up for real? I would.

102 posted on 02/01/2007 6:47:03 AM PST by Caesar Soze
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To: Wormwood
Look at the other latest example in Austin, Texas two weeks ago. After a cold front that caused overnight temperature changes, some trash birds died and they shut off a portion of the city.

Feed some hype/misinformation to the MSM and the emergency response teams are able to do a all-out live drill.

Did we not hear/read from the MSM yesterday that the bomb squad DID find pipe bombs?

103 posted on 02/01/2007 6:47:04 AM PST by Deaf Smith
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To: reagan_fanatic

104 posted on 02/01/2007 6:47:14 AM PST by Conservomax (There are no solutions, only trade-offs.)
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To: Miss Marple
It's a little-watched late night show which I only marginally knew about, and I didn't know who the characters were.

You earthlings are so naive. We moon people are so much more enlightened than you.

105 posted on 02/01/2007 6:47:17 AM PST by jmc813 (Please check out www.marrow.org and consider becoming a donor. You may save a life.)
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To: from occupied ga
The paranoids are doing the terrorists work for them.

Better to be blown up by a bomb than to live in fear. I'll be damned if I'm going to freak out every time there's a toy, a car, or a garbage can out of place.
106 posted on 02/01/2007 6:47:43 AM PST by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, Deport all illegals, abolish the IRS, ATF and DEA)
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To: Aikonaa
Send the bill for the mess to these 'guerrilla marketers' and you will see this kind of nonsense ending quickly.

Thats a very good sugestion

107 posted on 02/01/2007 6:47:49 AM PST by Charlespg (Peace= When we trod the ruins of Mecca and Medina under our infidel boots.)
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To: Conservomax; Miss Marple

I've been ill and haven't been able to read all the replies, but after listening to all the shock, fear, and anger expressed last night on WBZ Boston, I was struck by the following irony:

Boston liberals recoil at the idea that the city overreacted to these ads. The city had to act based on the information it possessed. But on the other hand, Boston liberals refuse to apply the same logic to President Bush's actions in Iraq.

I just find it interesting.


108 posted on 02/01/2007 6:49:54 AM PST by zook (America going insane - "Do you read Sutter Caine?)
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To: DB
My beef is with the government's response, not whomever was concerned or reported it.

But the response is to the reports, not the reality of what's determined later. They don't have the luxury of waiting until they find out there's no risk, even if they're pretty sure there is no risk.

If they did, and instead there turned out to be an actual plot in action... we'd *fry* them for failing to act in time. It's a no-win for them.

109 posted on 02/01/2007 6:50:06 AM PST by Ramius ([sip])
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To: MizSterious
No, but I've seen the really POORLY drawn "characters."

What cartoons are masterfully drawn? Were the Flintstones wonderfully drawn? Was Huckleberry Hound great art? Magilla Gorilla? Heck, in most cartoons, the people just have three fingers.

The point of adult cartoons, like the ones on Adult Swim, is not great drawing, but satire. Some suck, but some are pretty funny.

110 posted on 02/01/2007 6:50:35 AM PST by Publius Valerius
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To: Constitution Day
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
111 posted on 02/01/2007 6:51:13 AM PST by Wormwood (Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderate)
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To: longtermmemmory
We have drug smugglers using children's dolls and teddy bears. We have palestinians using the shape of a pregnant woman to hide bombs. Plastic explosives chan be shaped into anything, INSIDE anything.

The lesson here is that criminals attempt to hide their bombs using everyday, innocuous objects that do not draw attention to themselves. Magnetic signs with light-up Mooninites do not fit the profile. (If you want to ignore the profile, than yeah, anything could be a bomb. It could be someone you know. Someone you trust. You might be a bomb and not even know it.)

112 posted on 02/01/2007 6:51:42 AM PST by Caesar Soze
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To: FunkyZero

Truest statement so far ....


113 posted on 02/01/2007 6:52:13 AM PST by SubGeniusX ("BLAMMO! Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead!")
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To: Wormwood
You haven't seen the show, so your opinions on it are worthless.

Aren't these ignorant Earth people cute with their 3 dimensions?

114 posted on 02/01/2007 6:52:24 AM PST by jmc813 (Please check out www.marrow.org and consider becoming a donor. You may save a life.)
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To: RedStateRocker
The paranoids are doing the terrorists work for them.

This just shows the competence of the Boston "authorities" Is boston even part of the USA any more or did it join with Quebec and no one noticed or cared.

115 posted on 02/01/2007 6:52:59 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government)
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To: Ramius

Well if that's the standard we are doomed.

If someone reports something odd being dropped in a trash can in a couple of locations we have to shut down the city...

Someone could actually go look at the "device" that had been there for more than a week to make a determination prior to shutting down the city...


116 posted on 02/01/2007 6:53:19 AM PST by DB
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To: Wormwood

Posting these images is probably considered terrorist activity.

Should we turn ourselves into Homeland Security or just wait for them to batter down our doors?


117 posted on 02/01/2007 6:55:37 AM PST by Constitution Day (.)
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To: Constitution Day
No one can defeat the Quad laser.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

118 posted on 02/01/2007 6:55:57 AM PST by Wormwood (Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderate)
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To: Wormwood

The bullet is enormous, there is no escaping.


119 posted on 02/01/2007 6:57:45 AM PST by Constitution Day (.)
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To: zook

That is an EXCELLENT point, zook! Just excellent!


120 posted on 02/01/2007 6:57:59 AM PST by Miss Marple (Prayers for Jemian's son,: Lord, please keep him safe and bring him home .)
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