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TACH
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 Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:41 am Post subject: Boston Bomb Scare: Cartoon Network Aqua Teen Hunger Force Hoax |
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It's not a HOAX,..... it was advertising with a Lite Brite, you (bleep) geniuses!!!! 
| Quote: | Don't Hit the Panic Button On Your Remote
By Lisa de Moraes
Thursday, February 1, 2007; C01
Boston got a taste of what it's like to be one of The Reporters Who Cover Television yesterday when Cartoon Network's guerrilla marketing campaign sent the city into high pants-wetting mode. Blinking electronic devices that caused authorities to shut down parts of the city were just part of Turner Broadcasting's campaign for its animated series "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." Not coincidentally, an "ATHF" movie opens next month.
Spooky guerrilla marketing campaigns for TV series are old hat for TRWCT. Why just the other day, they all got packages from ABC Family network containing vials of white powder. The mind reels, thinking how the mayor of Boston would have reacted to one of those. (ABC Family explained that the white powder was instant faux snow and that the reporters were supposed to add water and enjoy the winter wonderland that would erupt.)
And TRWCT are still chuckling about the night during the TV Press Tour when they all returned to their hotel rooms, turned on the lights and simultaneously broke the standing high-jump record upon discovering someone had broken into their rooms and scrawled the word "Redrum" in lipstick across their bathroom mirrors -- just like Jack Nicholson did in the movie set in that Estes Park, Colo., hotel not long before he tried to separate his wife's head from her shoulders with an ax.
It was just those pranksters at ABC marketing reminding them to be sure and review the upcoming remake of "The Shining."
And who can forget the time -- another press tour -- when TRWCT returned to their hotel rooms -- again, late at night -- to discover their bathrooms were cordoned off with police crime-scene tape. That one went over particularly well with The Women Who Cover Television.
More recently, in March '05, the merry marketing pranksters at NBC were sent out to write "Omnium finis imminet" -- loosely, "The end is near" -- on trash cans, buildings and sidewalks in cities nationwide. They took snaps of their work and posted those images on the Internet. Interestingly, that campaign did not cause the kind of panic we saw in Boston yesterday because, of course, no one in this country knows Latin.
That was a guerrilla campaign for the NBC series "Revelations," which debuted in April 2005 and was canceled that May. Which is kind of the point.
For TV guerrilla marketers, the Holy Grail remains Paramount's spring 2006 campaign for the movie "Mission: Impossible III" in which scary little plastic rectangular thingummies with wires springing from them were planted in 4,500 Los Angeles Times newspaper boxes. The thingummies played the theme to the flick when customers bought a paper, as well as scaring the stuffing out of them.
That one brought out the Los Angeles County sheriff's arson squad, which blew up a newspaper box in an upscale suburb, and more than 50 patients and dozens of staff at the Veterans Affairs hospital in West L.A. were evacuated for two hours after a clerk bought a newspaper inside the hospital. Eventually they learned from the newspaper and Paramount that it was marketing -- not terrorism.
Boston's troubles started yesterday when a bus passenger saw one of the devices attached to a highway ramp support beam. Soon, other devices were spotted. Because officials of the city of Boston did not contact one of TRWCT, they did not realize until much later that at least one of the scary gadgets depicted a character from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" -- which is about an order of french fries named Frylock, his milkshake pal Master Shake and a meatball named Meatwad, who used to safeguard the world when the program debuted in 2000 but these days, not so much -- giving them the middle finger.
Instead, traffic was halted, buildings evacuated. The Department of Homeland Security sprang into action, assuring Americans yesterday afternoon that, as the Associated Press reported, it had found "no credible reports of other devices being found elsewhere in the country."
Which is ironic because Turner Broadcasting said in a statement that it had planted loads of these devices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, San Francisco and Philly. Department of Homeland Security doing its usual great work.
Late yesterday, Turner Broadcasting Chairman and CEO Phil Kent issued an apology to the citizens of Boston in which he said his company had directed the third-party marketing firm that posted the advertisements to take them down immediately in all 10 cities. Kent added: "We appreciate the gravity of this situation and, like any responsible company would, are putting all necessary resources toward understanding the facts surrounding it as quickly as possible."
ABC's Charlie Gibson led his evening newscast with a report on Cartoon Network's clever campaign:
Good evening. It is a measure of just how jittery, how on-edge this country still is. In Boston today, a number of suspicious packages were found near bridges, underneath an interstate, and near a medical center. Parts of Boston were shut down for a time. Even a section of the Charles River was closed.
It turned out to be a stupid stunt. But a good object lesson that when suspicious packages are found, people do react.
Still, some of The Reporters Who Cover Television said yesterday they were surprised to hear about the Cartoon Network stunt.
They think guerrilla TV marketing is sort of over because it's not cost-effective and while it grabs headlines, that doesn't necessarily translate into viewers for a show. Yes, the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" scare led the evening news, but no one who watches "World News Tonight" is going to watch Cartoon Network; or this particular show, part of the network's late-night Adult Swim programming, which targets teenage guys; or go to the movie. It was just some old guy saying, Those damned kids. |
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Exick
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:13 am Post subject: |
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I first heard of this when Thompson was telling the guys on the Loose Cannons that the Boston PD bomb squad had been blowing up suspicious packages all day. Then more and more pieces of the story were coming out only to find out that it was an ATHF ad campaign. Good job, Boston PD.
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TACH
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:28 am Post subject: |
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| Exick wrote: | | I first heard of this when Thompson was telling the guys on the Loose Cannons that the Boston PD bomb squad had been blowing up suspicious packages all day. Then more and more pieces of the story were coming out only to find out that it was an ATHF ad campaign. Good job, Boston PD. |
What's the saying about 'bad' press... One thing for sure... everybody knows about the movie now.... Mission Accomplished! |
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lakersfreak
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:41 am Post subject: |
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One could argue they did not realize how serious this would be before they did it.
After listening to these fools at their press conference, how flippant they are about what they caused, they need to be locked up.
Dreadlock boy may lose that smirk when he gets his cherry popped in the pen. |
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Exick
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:57 am Post subject: |
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| lakersfreak wrote: | | After listening to these fools at their press conference, how flippant they are about what they caused, they need to be locked up. |
Why should they be apologetic because paranoid Keystone Cops are running things? How is wishing that someone goes to prison and gets raped for something that wasn't even illegal a rational thing to say?
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lakersfreak
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:19 am Post subject: |
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| Did u watch their press conference? |
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TACH
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:21 am Post subject: |
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| Exick wrote: | | lakersfreak wrote: | | After listening to these fools at their press conference, how flippant they are about what they caused, they need to be locked up. |
Why should they be apologetic because paranoid Keystone Cops are running things? How is wishing that someone goes to prison and gets raped for something that wasn't even illegal a rational thing to say? |
True,.. these things have been around for weeks... my boy told me he saw one in Philly,... weeks ago... they've been up in some cities for 2 - 3 weeks. And did you see these 'devices'... my 10 year's science project looked more mencing then these 'lite brites'....
I guess, in the end, the Cartoon Network got what it wanted.... publicity...
PIC of the mencing device - PIC
Last edited by TACH on Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:27 am; edited 1 time in total |
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lakersfreak
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Exick
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:29 am Post subject: |
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So their lawyer advised them not to talk about the case and they chose to ramble on about hair during the press conference? I don't get what this has to do with anything.
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TACH
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:29 am Post subject: |
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lakersfreak
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:38 am Post subject: |
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Has to do with disrupting a city and costing almost $1 million to the tax payers.
Again, I was willing to cut them some slack thinking they were just plain ignorant.
They think it's a joke so let them laugh it off behind bars. |
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TACH
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:48 am Post subject: |
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| lakersfreak wrote: | Has to do with disrupting a city and costing almost $1 million to the tax payers.
Again, I was willing to cut them some slack thinking they were just plain ignorant.
They think it's a joke so let them laugh it off behind bars. |
Talk about ignorance, what about the people that thought this was an actual threat or the one that are ignorant,.. shutting down a city of a lite brite? A quick examination would say that these were no more dangerous that a piece of gum. How come no other cities showdown because of these things? |
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ocho
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:50 am Post subject: |
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| lakersfreak wrote: | Has to do with disrupting a city and costing almost $1 million to the tax payers.
Again, I was willing to cut them some slack thinking they were just plain ignorant.
They think it's a joke so let them laugh it off behind bars. |
they put up some light up signs. don't you think it's a little silly for people to be that stupid and think it's a BOMB??
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Socks
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:05 am Post subject: |
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| ocho wrote: | | lakersfreak wrote: | Has to do with disrupting a city and costing almost $1 million to the tax payers.
Again, I was willing to cut them some slack thinking they were just plain ignorant.
They think it's a joke so let them laugh it off behind bars. |
they put up some light up signs. don't you think it's a little silly for people to be that stupid and think it's a BOMB?? |
I dunno how I feel about this. It seems silly, but they did cost tax payers a load of cash. No matter how they look, wouldn't you want your local PD to take it seriously? You can make a bomb look like just about anything. If you were a terrorist, wouldn' t you now be thinking about disguising your bombs as lite brites? |
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lakersfreak
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:07 am Post subject: |
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| Terrorist are now adding "Make IED look like a lite bright toy, Americans won't take it seriously" to their check list for a successful bombing |
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ocho
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:07 am Post subject: |
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| Socks wrote: | | ocho wrote: | | lakersfreak wrote: | Has to do with disrupting a city and costing almost $1 million to the tax payers.
Again, I was willing to cut them some slack thinking they were just plain ignorant.
They think it's a joke so let them laugh it off behind bars. |
they put up some light up signs. don't you think it's a little silly for people to be that stupid and think it's a BOMB?? |
I dunno how I feel about this. It seems silly, but they did cost tax payers a load of cash. No matter how they look, wouldn't you want your local PD to take it seriously? You can make a bomb look like just about anything. If you were a terrorist, wouldn' t you now be thinking about disguising your bombs as lite brites? |
didn't the dopes who couldn't tell a neon sign from a bomb cost the tax payers money?
well if you can disguise a bomb as anything than should we all start calling the cops when we see a dog? a slice of pizza? a shoe? i think it's more a problem of people giving into hysteria than it is a couple guys putting up some signs and then joking about the ridiculousness of it.
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Exick
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:15 am Post subject: |
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| lakersfreak wrote: | | Terrorist are now adding "Make IED look like a lite bright toy, Americans won't take it seriously" to their check list for a successful bombing |
Clearly Americans not taking it seriously is the opposite of what happened.
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Socks
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:18 am Post subject: |
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| ocho wrote: | | Socks wrote: | | ocho wrote: | | lakersfreak wrote: | Has to do with disrupting a city and costing almost $1 million to the tax payers.
Again, I was willing to cut them some slack thinking they were just plain ignorant.
They think it's a joke so let them laugh it off behind bars. |
they put up some light up signs. don't you think it's a little silly for people to be that stupid and think it's a BOMB?? |
I dunno how I feel about this. It seems silly, but they did cost tax payers a load of cash. No matter how they look, wouldn't you want your local PD to take it seriously? You can make a bomb look like just about anything. If you were a terrorist, wouldn' t you now be thinking about disguising your bombs as lite brites? |
didn't the dopes who couldn't tell a neon sign from a bomb cost the tax payers money?
well if you can disguise a bomb as anything than should we all start calling the cops when we see a dog? a slice of pizza? a shoe? i think it's more a problem of people giving into hysteria than it is a couple guys putting up some signs and then joking about the ridiculousness of it. |
Within reason of course. There's a difference between a device with blinking lights vs. a dog or a slice of pizza. Let's just say that a device with blinking lights on it is ignored because the PD thinks it's just a joke. Turns out to be a bomb and people get hurt. Then the PD is going to get absolutely reamed because they didn't do their jobs - and you've got loss of lives. So damned if they do, damned if they don't. I'd rather they err on the side of caution. |
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TACH
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:31 am Post subject: |
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| Socks wrote: | | ocho wrote: | | Socks wrote: | | ocho wrote: | | lakersfreak wrote: | Has to do with disrupting a city and costing almost $1 million to the tax payers.
Again, I was willing to cut them some slack thinking they were just plain ignorant.
They think it's a joke so let them laugh it off behind bars. |
they put up some light up signs. don't you think it's a little silly for people to be that stupid and think it's a BOMB?? |
I dunno how I feel about this. It seems silly, but they did cost tax payers a load of cash. No matter how they look, wouldn't you want your local PD to take it seriously? You can make a bomb look like just about anything. If you were a terrorist, wouldn' t you now be thinking about disguising your bombs as lite brites? |
didn't the dopes who couldn't tell a neon sign from a bomb cost the tax payers money?
well if you can disguise a bomb as anything than should we all start calling the cops when we see a dog? a slice of pizza? a shoe? i think it's more a problem of people giving into hysteria than it is a couple guys putting up some signs and then joking about the ridiculousness of it. |
Within reason of course. There's a difference between a device with blinking lights vs. a dog or a slice of pizza. Let's just say that a device with blinking lights on it is ignored because the PD thinks it's just a joke. Turns out to be a bomb and people get hurt. Then the PD is going to get absolutely reamed because they didn't do their jobs - and you've got loss of lives. So damned if they do, damned if they don't. I'd rather they err on the side of caution. |
If I lived in Boston, I would be really scared that law enforcement couldn't tell the difference between a lite brite and a bomb, but choose to shut down the city to find out. I would also ask myself, why didn't NYC, Philly, LA, Chi-Town, etc shut down their cities?
We're not saying ignore it,.. but it is obvious they did not examine the device before shutting down the city.
As for the taxpayers... they should be complaining about the 'Big Dig'.... this little stunt is peanuts compared to that disaster... |
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ocho
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:39 am Post subject: |
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| Socks wrote: | | ocho wrote: | | Socks wrote: | | ocho wrote: | | lakersfreak wrote: | Has to do with disrupting a city and costing almost $1 million to the tax payers.
Again, I was willing to cut them some slack thinking they were just plain ignorant.
They think it's a joke so let them laugh it off behind bars. |
they put up some light up signs. don't you think it's a little silly for people to be that stupid and think it's a BOMB?? |
I dunno how I feel about this. It seems silly, but they did cost tax payers a load of cash. No matter how they look, wouldn't you want your local PD to take it seriously? You can make a bomb look like just about anything. If you were a terrorist, wouldn' t you now be thinking about disguising your bombs as lite brites? |
didn't the dopes who couldn't tell a neon sign from a bomb cost the tax payers money?
well if you can disguise a bomb as anything than should we all start calling the cops when we see a dog? a slice of pizza? a shoe? i think it's more a problem of people giving into hysteria than it is a couple guys putting up some signs and then joking about the ridiculousness of it. |
Within reason of course. There's a difference between a device with blinking lights vs. a dog or a slice of pizza. Let's just say that a device with blinking lights on it is ignored because the PD thinks it's just a joke. Turns out to be a bomb and people get hurt. Then the PD is going to get absolutely reamed because they didn't do their jobs - and you've got loss of lives. So damned if they do, damned if they don't. I'd rather they err on the side of caution. |
i saw the devices. they don't look suspicious at all. they look like light up cartoon characters. i'd hate to see what happens if these citizens went to disneyland.
they had no reason to think they were bombs other than mass hysteria and paranoia. if some people didn't live in constant fear of being bombed, this wouldn't have happened.
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lakersfreak
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:12 pm Post subject: |
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Did you see the back of them?
Neither did the authorities, for all they knew there was a pound of C4 on the back.
It's easy to say something is not dangerous when you are watching it on tv. |
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LakerFanAlways
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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| WOW these dumbasses remind me of the retards in Eagle County |
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ocho
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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| lakersfreak wrote: | Did you see the back of them?
Neither did the authorities, for all they knew there was a pound of C4 on the back.
It's easy to say something is not dangerous when you are watching it on tv. |
you can say that about a trash can. you can say that about a car. you can say that about a table. you can say that about ALMOST ANYTHING!
fact is they had no reason to believe it was a bomb. they saw a neon cartoon character and FREAKED OUT.
imo, that's ridiculous.
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DancingBarry
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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| The real problem is people attaching things to highway ramps and other public works as part of "advertising". Maybe I should start spray painting my company name on streets and bridges everywhere I can find some open space. Hey, it's just a brige over the freeway...all I am doing is advertising. |
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NappyFox
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Here's a vid of them putting up them lite brites. video link |
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