Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 161-180181-200201-220221-237 last
To: Puppage

The problem was in using public property without permission. It's public property, and that means no private use is allowed and this means YOU. Next time get the permit.


221 posted on 02/01/2007 12:26:35 PM PST by RightWhale (300 miles north of Big Wild Life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Psycho_Bunny

Well, maybe you will be needing those instructions, when you're... COLD AS ICE.


222 posted on 02/01/2007 12:33:24 PM PST by Constitution Day ("Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." — Aldous Huxley)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 220 | View Replies]

To: MizSterious
Hello, Miz. I have been gone this afternoon and came home just in time to see a clip of these two idiots, mocking everyone in their press conference.

As I surmised, they are art students ("performance artists"). My daughter was an art major and I have run into a lot of these people over the last few years.

They are self-absorbed, contemptuous of society, overly concerned with appearance over substance, and generally unable to relate to the general public.

I still maintain that seeing these things in daylight one would be unable to see the character they were portraying, and with the batteries and wires and the fact they were attached to infrastructure, it is easy to see how people got alarmed.

Of course, I am simply stupid, according to all these cool people who can INSTANTLY distinguish bombs from harmless items, and who watch cartoons for entertainment. HA!

223 posted on 02/01/2007 12:42:34 PM PST by Miss Marple (Prayers for Jemian's son,: Lord, please keep him safe and bring him home .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 209 | View Replies]

To: Miss Marple

The level of hostility and rudeness on this thread is disappointing. No better than DU.


224 posted on 02/01/2007 1:03:40 PM PST by ladyjane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 223 | View Replies]

To: Wormwood
Jumping is useless.

Just...stand there for a minute.

225 posted on 02/01/2007 1:20:39 PM PST by jmc813 (Please check out www.marrow.org and consider becoming a donor. You may save a life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: Ramius; Wormwood
So... the next time there are six or so calls from all over reporting suspicious boxes that all sound similar, say in various shopping malls, they should just blow it off?

I like to shoplift electronic equipment from malls while smoking.

226 posted on 02/01/2007 1:21:36 PM PST by jmc813 (Please check out www.marrow.org and consider becoming a donor. You may save a life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 122 | View Replies]

To: Mr. Blonde
I'm just glad they didn't have the Foreigner belt. Who knows what havoc they might have caused.

I saw Foreigner one. Meadowlands, '84. Damn good show!

227 posted on 02/01/2007 1:36:09 PM PST by jmc813 (Please check out www.marrow.org and consider becoming a donor. You may save a life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 214 | View Replies]

To: Miss Marple; Psycho_Bunny; Wormwood; Constitution Day
They are self-absorbed, contemptuous of society

It's hard not to be contemptuous of a society that has three dimensions. We have five. Thousand.

228 posted on 02/01/2007 1:38:55 PM PST by jmc813 (Please check out www.marrow.org and consider becoming a donor. You may save a life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 223 | View Replies]

To: jmc813

Still think it's a joke, huh? Okay.


229 posted on 02/01/2007 1:39:50 PM PST by Miss Marple (Prayers for Jemian's son,: Lord, please keep him safe and bring him home .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 228 | View Replies]

To: Miss Marple
Still think it's a joke, huh?

The stufff I've been posting have been inside jokes. If you saw the episodes of this show involving the character on these signs, I guarantee you'd get at least a chuckle.

230 posted on 02/01/2007 1:58:54 PM PST by jmc813 (Please check out www.marrow.org and consider becoming a donor. You may save a life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 229 | View Replies]

To: Miss Marple
There is something wrong with watching cartoons for entertainment? What am I supposed to watch them for?

I don't think the problem is necessarily with people thinking they are bombs, but with the over reaction from the police. Seems like it should have quickly became apparent that these were most likely not bombs, and sending the entire SWAT team to each location was probably not needed.
231 posted on 02/01/2007 2:33:31 PM PST by Mr. Blonde (Like I always say, there's no "I" in team. There's a "me" though, if you jumble it up.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 223 | View Replies]

To: Bommer

Have you met what is graduating from the police accademy these days?

The thin blue line is a very much us vs them mentality.

The good first line of defense cop is the exception not the rule.

Plus, do you really want those mental midgets distinguishing between a lite brite and a bomb?


232 posted on 02/01/2007 2:40:45 PM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 152 | View Replies]

To: Miss Marple
First of all, we ARE in a post 9-11 world. People who don't think this is a big deal are not understanding how much things have changed.

_____________________________

Suspicious Aqua Teen Hunger Force OH NO!

Living in post 9-11 sucks. Are Americans to fear forever the invisible terrorist. In my world I would have nuked every Muslim capitol in the world and erase all existence of Mohammedanism off the planet after 9-11. You could say I would have gone totally Roman on Islam and call it a Carthaginian day.

But Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

American imports Islam like Japanese cars to our shores and forever we must live with the Patriot Act and be SUSPICIOUS of everything and everyone.

Sorry pal, this is not the America or world I want for anyone.

____________________________

This is how ridiculous Islam is.

How to practice Islam in space?

he astronaut will also visit the International Space Station, which circles the earth 16 times in 24 hours, so another thorny question is how to pray five times a day as required by Islam.

Muslims also have to turn towards Mecca to pray and working out which direction that will be while hovering above the earth might be challenging.

______________________________

Jail toilets face away from Mecca.

Faith leaders had told prison bosses it was unacceptable for Muslim inmates to face Mecca while using the toilet.

_____________________________

Mohammedanism is incompatible with Western Civilization. Either total war or keep them in the sand box but this 100 years war BS, $4 trillion dollars tack on to the national debt with local and global paranoia in not the answer.

233 posted on 02/01/2007 2:50:06 PM PST by Major_Risktaker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: longtermmemmory
Plus, do you really want those mental midgets distinguishing between a lite brite and a bomb?

Hell what choice do we have? Sorry but I'm almost 45; I love ATHF and LMAO when they pulled out a Mooninite thinking it was a Bomb! I knew people in Massachusetts where morons but I never thought they would steep to this level of stupidity....then again they keep reelecting Kennedy and Kerry,!

234 posted on 02/01/2007 3:19:36 PM PST by Bommer (Global Warming: The only warming phenomena that occurs in the Summer and ends in the Winter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 232 | View Replies]

To: Puppage

Man, you can't BUY advertising like this!


235 posted on 02/01/2007 3:22:10 PM PST by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Nazism was in 1938.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RJS1950
Well, now that "everyone knows" these are just part of an ad campaign, what "ads" will be next? On bridge structural elements, power poles with transformers, and a host of other locations in plain view which could be 'casually' (in plain view) important infrastructure.

The possibilites to the devious mind just go on and on, but this has emphasized a cultural vulnerability.

No one wants to be incautious, but no one wants to seem like an idiot, either.

Sooner or later the little shepherd boy will cry "Wolf!", and end up dog poop.

236 posted on 02/01/2007 5:18:37 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 217 | View Replies]

To: Psycho_Bunny

I found it behind the armoire...of despair!!


237 posted on 02/02/2007 10:56:57 AM PST by vikk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 220 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 161-180181-200201-220221-237 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson