Turner Broadcasting Marketing Campaign Causes Terrorism Fear And Chaos In Boston

[Chizip]

 

[Canadiens1131]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The two suspects were advised by their lawyer not to discuss the case, so they found something else to talk to reporters about

Click "suspects avoid answering questions link

The thing is, I think the terrorists have indeed won. If various LED light boards hung around an urban area can really cause a bomb scare, then tens of yellow umbrellas erected next to a highway might be cause for seri0s panic.

 

[Canadiens1131]

I'm sorry, I can't even get over how ridiculous this is. The city officials are calling them 'hoax' devices. More proof that bureaucrats are absolutely retarded. Even the news media coverage is treating this like a hoax taken too seriously, when in fact it's just a bunch of goddam LED lights like the blue ones on the front of your computer.

It truly is a sad state of affairs we live in. If it's any condolence, the people of Seattle are apparently not as square and didn't call in possible bomb reports when faced with the same advertising light boards.

 

[Chizip]

the day we could stop bringing things like toothpaste and bottled water onto in airplane was the day the terrorists won. and its just gonna keep getting worse.

i find it ironic that during that press conference the media was accusing them of creating chaos and panic in Boston, when in reality, it is the media themselves with their fear mongering propaganda that causes the chaos and panic

 

[Canadiens1131]

the day we could stop bringing things like toothpaste and bottled water onto in airplane was the day the terrorists won. and its just gonna keep getting worse.

i find it ironic that during that press conference the media was accusing them of creating chaos and panic in Boston, when in reality, it is the media themselves with their fear mongering propaganda that causes the chaos and panic

Come on Chaz, doesn't this look like a bomb to you?

GG Boston police thanks for playing

 

[corianderstem]

It truly is a sad state of affairs we live in. If it's any condolence, the people of Seattle are apparently not as square and didn't call in possible bomb reports

Darn tootin'! Seattle is cool as a cucumber. Unless faced with rioters, earthquakes and possible terrorists trying to enter the country to possibly blow up the Space Needle at the millennium. Which I guess didn't pan out and they really had been targeting LA or something.

But still. Seattle. Whoot.

I agree with those who say it was a dumb idea, and they should have known there would be overreaction. Would it have been so hard to alert the cities this was going on?

I also agree it was blown way out of proportion, and the media contributed to that.

 

[U2Girl1978]

I live in the Boston area. While I believe it was a bit blown out of proportion who in their right mind would put stuff like that near highway ramps? Look at what is going on in the world today! It was a completely stupid idea.

At least the Boston Police were on top of it. There was at least one of those stupid devices that had wires sticking out of the back. It's better to be safe than sorry i say.

There were also two fake pipe bombs found yesterday.

Like I said earlier it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[randhail]

Create some chaos in your city!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mooninites-Igni...528QQihZ013QQcategoryZ363QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[U2Girl1978]

Whoa! Look how much it's gotten up to.

 

[Canadiens1131]

I live in the Boston area. While I believe it was a bit blown out of proportion who in their right mind would put stuff like that near highway ramps?

Because these obviously appear to be bombs.
Somehow I doubt Al Qaeda has a sense of humor

 

[U2Man]

are you saying that the biggest zz-top fan club on the planet doesn't have a sense of humour???

 

[Canadiens1131]

I found an article that sums up my feelings succinctly.

Non-Terrorist Embarrassment in Boston

The story is almost too funny to write about seriously. To advertise the Cartoon Network show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," the network put up 38 blinking signs (kind of like Lite Brites) around the Boston area. The Boston police decided -- with absolutely no supporting evidence -- that these were bombs and shut down parts of the city.

Now the police look stupid, but they're trying really not hard not to act humiliated:

Governor Deval Patrick told the Associated Press: "It's a hoax -- and it's not funny."

Unfortunately, it is funny. What isn't funny is now the Boston government is trying to prosecute the artist and the network instead of owning up to their own stupidity. The police now claim that they were "hoax" explosive devices. I don't think you can claim they are hoax explosive devices unless they were intended to look like explosive devices, which merely a cursory look at any of them shows that they weren't.

But it's much easier to blame others than to admit that you were wrong:

"It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme," Mayor Thomas Menino said. "I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred."

And:

Rep. Ed Markey, a Boston-area congressman, said, "Whoever thought this up needs to find another job."

"Scaring an entire region, tying up the T and major roadways, and forcing first responders to spend 12 hours chasing down trinkets instead of terrorists is marketing run amok," Markey, a Democrat, said in a written statement. "It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt."

I like this comment:

They consisted of magnetic signs with blinking lights in the shape of a cartoon character.

And everyone knows that bombs have blinking lights on ‘em. Every single movie bomb you’ve ever seen has a blinking light.

Triumph for Homeland Security, guys.

And this one:

"It's almost too easy to be a terrorist these days," said Jennifer Mason, 26. "You stick a box on a corner and you can shut down a city."

And this one, by one of the artists who installed the signs:

"I find it kind of ridiculous that they're making these statements on TV that we must not be safe from terrorism, because they were up there for three weeks and no one noticed. It's pretty commonsensical to look at them and say this is a piece of art and installation," he said.

Right. If this wasn't a ridiculous overreaction to a non-existent threat, then how come the devices were in place for weeks without anyone noticing them? What does that say about the Boston police?

Maybe if the Boston police stopped wasting time and money searching bags on subways....

Of the 2,449 inspections between Oct. 10 and Dec. 31, the bags of 27 riders tested positive in the initial screening for explosives, prompting further searches, the Globe found in an analysis of daily inspection reports obtained under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

In the additional screening, 11 passengers had their bags checked by explosive-sniffing dogs, and 16 underwent a physical search. Nothing was found.

These blinking signs have been up for weeks in ten cities -- Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia -- and no one else has managed to panic so completely. Refuse to be terrorized, people!

Posted on February 01, 2007 at 01:08 PM

 

[phanan]

I feel bad for those two guys being prosecuted. They were working for a company - shouldn't the company be held responsible instead?

 

[kafrun]

Is your ego satisfied??

 

[zoney!]

who in their right mind would put stuff like that near highway ramps? Look at what is going on in the world today! It was a completely stupid idea.

Guerilla marketeers would! Think of the captive audience this LITE-BRITE TOY could capture wile people are stuck waiting to get down into the Big Dig?

Oh, yeah...Big Dig. THERE is a completely stupid idea!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

who in their right mind would put advertising in high traffic areas.

how stupid and irresponsible.

 

[U2Girl1978]

Guerilla marketeers would! Think of the captive audience this LITE-BRITE TOY could capture wile people are stuck waiting to get down into the Big Dig?

Oh, yeah...Big Dig. THERE is a completely stupid idea!

Ohhhh don't even get me started on the Big Dig.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Isn't it considered the largest civil engineering project disaster/money pit of all time?

 

[randhail]

I like my tunnels leaky and my panels falling thank you very much. It makes driving much more of an adventure. Big Dig

 

[U2Girl1978]

Isn't it considered the largest civil engineering project disaster/money pit of all time?

Pretty much!!!

 

[Ormus]

Isn't it considered the largest civil engineering project disaster/money pit of all time?

Personally, I'd say that distinction belongs to the "Green Monster" that preceded it.

I think the Big Dig is unfairly maligned, considering how much it has improved Boston's traffic flow and overall beauty. And sure...it has had its quirks. But if it was genuinely mismanaged and the project contractors were delinquent, Massachusetts should hopefully be able to sue them into repayment. But that's not the project's fault; it's corporate greed's fault. After all, these are the same kind of companies that have mismanaged Iraq's reconstruction. Either way, it will be fixed someday, and Boston will be better off for it. It's not like people would ever have seen that money anyway; it would have just went to another tax cut for the rich or corporate welfare to encourage job outsourcing. At least that money was a serious investment into our decaying transportation infrastructure!

I'm sorry, but I truly hate how much people in North America are afraid of long-term public works projects.

 

[U2MaNaIcWeIdO]

I think the Turner Broadcasting should have told the police officials before putting up the unique marketing plan (I find it inventive using old Light Brite equipment to make a statement)...cause they should have know that we live in a extremely paranoid country since 9/11. If they done this before 9/11 this would have been more funny than anything else.

 

[kellyahern]

Guerilla marketeers would! Think of the captive audience this LITE-BRITE TOY could capture wile people are stuck waiting to get down into the Big Dig?

Oh, yeah...Big Dig. THERE is a completely stupid idea!

To think, all those years ago when I was playing with my Lite-Brite, I was really playing with a terrorist device.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I guess it's some sort of weird psychological phenomenon to believe that wherever you live is immune to this sort of reaction. Interesting. Batteries and wires were visible, not a Lite Brite-but I guess people just want to ignore that and all the other facts


By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff | February 2, 2007

In six of the nine other cities where the Turner Broadcasting System guerrilla ads were installed, they were not placed on or near major highways, bridges, or transit hubs, as they were in Boston.

Law enforcement officials in other cities and in Boston said yesterday that the difference helps to explain the vastly different responses. While no one had reported the magnetic lighted signs as suspicious in the other cities, they caused a bomb scare that paralyzed parts of the Boston region for much of Wednesday.

"I think Boston reacted the way they did because someone noticed the devices and rightly thought that they might be dangerous," Atlanta Police spokesman Joe Cobb said in a telephone interview. "I would think that we would have reacted similarly."

Turner Broadcasting hired a New York City marketing company to promote a show on the Cartoon Network with the lighted signs depicted one of the show's characters. That company, Interference Inc., then hired freelance workers in 10 cities to place the signs over the last few weeks in areas where young men would see them. After news of the Boston bomb scare, Turner Broadcasting gave police in the other cities lists of where the signs were placed, so they could retrieve them to prevent further scares.

Cobb said the company supplied a list of 52 intended and 10 actual locations of the signs in Atlanta. But when police canvassed those areas Wednesday night, no signs were recovered, he said. Cobb said the only one that could have caused concern because of its location was on a bridge overpass, but police received no calls about it.

"They were predominantly in trendy or alternative areas of the city, on vacant buildings near bars," he said. "Other than what happened in Boston, we were kind of oblivious to the whole thing."

The New York Police Department was given a list of 41 possible locations for the signs, but only found two in Manhattan, both 20 feet off the ground on an unused railroad overpass. Spokesman John Kelly said the department had received no complaints or 911 calls about the devices. It is not clear what happened to the other 39, he said.

Austin police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said none of the signs were on bridges, major intersections, roads, or bus stations. When officers went to retrieve the signs, all were gone. So, too, in Los Angeles, where police yesterday would not comment yesterday.

In Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle, police said they were not collecting the devices.

In Seattle, the first device was found Tuesday by a public works crew working on a railroad trestle, Woodinville Police Chief John McSwain told the Associated Press.

"Public works found it and took it down and didn't even bother to call us," because the device didn't appear to be threatening, he said.

The two cities that were reacting were Philadelphia and Chicago, where, as in Boston, some of the signs were located near rail stations, officials said.

In Chicago, police recovered 20 of the signs from at least 34 locations cited by Turner Broadcasting, including near elevated train platforms.

As police canvassed the city, they spotted two men removing the signs at one location. Both were questioned and admitted working for Interference, but were not arrested.

"Just by the appearance of the wires and the lights, it's enough to alarm someone into thinking that it could possibly be an explosive device," said Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond, who said police did not get any calls.

In Philadelphia, where officials had only recovered one of 56 signs, one potential location was at 30th Street Station, the city's main rail hub. Another location was at a train stop. No devices were recovered from either location.

Joe Grace, spokesman for Mayor John F. Street, said the city of Philadelphia was never notified by Turner about the signs. He said the city sent a "cease and desist" letter to the corporation and could also impose fines. "It's one thing to do innovative or interesting marketing, and it's another thing to do something irresponsible, and this was irresponsible," said Grace.

Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said yesterday that the massive response was based partly on terrorism-related arrests earlier in the day in Britain; the shutdown of a Washington, D.C, subway station because of a suspicious package; and local reports of different kinds of suspicious devices.

There was a potential pipe bomb in a drawer on the second floor of New England Medical Center and an unknown cylindrical device near the Longfellow Bridge, he said.

"This incident unfolded in a rather unique way," he said. "There was the first incident at 9, and then after 1 p.m. there were a series of incidents and a flood of calls that came in that indicated that someone was putting these devices in places that affected rail transportation, bridges, and medical facilities."

According to a police report, Peter L. Berdovsky, one of two men charged in connection with installing the signs, told investigators that he was instructed by Interference to place the LED signs around "train stations, overpasses, hip and trendy areas, high traffic areas of high visibility."

Berdovsky told police that late Monday and early Tuesday he and the other man charged, Sean Stevens, put up 18 of the signs.

"A device affixed to a support beam for a highway adjacent to a very busy subway and bus hub for the T?" asked T general manager Daniel A. Grabauskas. "And then in short order we hear about something under the Longfellow Bridge, the main arterial link between Cambridge and Boston over which the Red Line runs? Any suspicious activity around those locations would raise attention."

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I guess it's some sort of weird psychological phenomenon to believe that wherever you live is immune to this sort of reaction. Interesting. Batteries and wires were visible, not a Lite Brite-but I guess people just want to ignore that and all the other facts [/B]

please... we've all seen these so called terrorist devices by now. if anyone looks at one of them and considers it to be a potential bomb, then their paranoia is at such a high stage that yes, the terrorists have won... 'cause they've made us so friggin' bat shit that a couple of exposed D batteries and one red wire on an LED board can shut down an entire metropolitan area's transportation infrastructure for hours.

boston PD's initial reaction, to take the utmost caution when someone called it in, was right and justifeid. after the first half hour or so when it was clear as day that it was a harmless item, that should have been the end of it. good response but a false alarm. to continue to drag this out is asinine. the item in NO way looks like a bomb whatsoever.

these items were found in new york... after the boston report came in one block was shut down for 45 minutes. then the nypd saw what it was, saw that it was 100% harmless, and didn't make a big deal of it. just like when the exploding soda can shut down penn station two october's ago. someone pretty much put alka seltzer in a soda can, someone saw strange white foam coming out of a coke can and freaked out, told the cops and they brought the bio terror unit in to check it out. they found what it was, threw it out, reopened penn station... they didn't drag it out for days and weeks. false alarm, move on.

seattle, philly, LA... they all didn't have this sort of reaction. but boston did. this is no condemnation of the people of boston... for the most part it appears that they handled the situation very well. but i really feel the boston mayor and the BPD are dragging this out because they feel embarassed, not because they honestly feel someone was attempting to set up hoax bombs throughout the city.

if they take this to court i can't see how any jury who's given a proper inspection of the item would convict them of setting up hoax bombs. they don't look like bombs... period.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

apparently another terrorist device was sitting in boston commons for the entire month of december and no one noticed...

alert homeland security

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Oh god, I hope Bono wasn't in Boston in December.

Seriously, I've been following this story and it's ridiculous. You would have thought at the very least they would have been smart enough to have alerted the cities they were planning to advertise in.

 

[redhotswami]

i thought there was some sort of protocol to follow when advertising on public grounds anyway? these people can come up with a creative ad, but are pretty ignorant when it comes to following directions.

that is, if there are any, i could be wrong.

i do think this was blown out of proportion...but perhaps that is because i am familiar with the show and that character. anyway, cartoon network definitely got the attention they wanted.

kinda surprised though that i haven't heard a complaint about these adds which have a character flippin the bird.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Um the Christmas tree wasn't near a bridge or overpass, and talk about "please". This wouldn't be really more about your oft mentioned, and repeated numerous times ad infinitum, "issues" with Boston though, would it? Cause that is really a quite silly overreaction too-it's only a city filled with some good people and some not so good, just like NY or anywhere else. If you want to keep ignoring the facts of what happened (and you aren't privy to all the facts either and you also seem to be ignoring what I've posted here) in order to support that , fine. I just can't wait to see the next thing that happens in any city-damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's so easy to sit in judgment when you don't have to make these types of decisions. I would rather have an overreaction and be the butt of jokes than a victim of a terrorist incident and think that batteries and wires should, and would, just be ignored.

I explained what the commissioner said regarding why they had to keep treating them like bombs, but you just keep ignoring that.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

NYC ignores cartoon villain, Beantown shuts down
BY MICHAEL AMON
Newsday Staff Writer

February 2, 2007

New York to Boston: Get over it.

The Big Apple's neighbor to the north was brought to a halt Wednesday when some harmless blinking signs advertising a cartoon were mistaken for bombs.

In New York? Fuhgeddaboudit. The city's 911 operators logged no calls -- not a single one -- when the identical devices depicting in lights a character from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," were planted around Manhattan and Brooklyn about two weeks ago.

"It takes a little more than that to shock us," said Randi Martinez, 25, a bartender from Manhattan who heard about the response in Boston.

In fact, 38 of the 40 signs hung in New York disappeared, presumably swiped by cultish fans of the show that airs on Cartoon Network, said Shirley Powell, a spokeswoman for Turner Broadcasting Co., the network's parent company. A few signs stolen in some of the 10 cities nationwide that were part of the promotion already had popped up on eBay yesterday, fetching bids of up to $1,250 each.

Could it be that New Yorkers, living in a city where ads pop up everywhere from subways to sidewalks, weren't concerned because they are inured to marketing? Or are Bostonians just a bit jumpier?

"People in Boston are a little more uptight than New Yorkers," said Hunter Foster, 37, the Manhattan actor who lived in Beantown several years ago and now appears as Leo Bloom in "The Producers". "It feels like a small town, and you don't see as much there. In New York, you see something weird every day."

The ads originated in New York, the brainchild of Interference Inc., a Manhattan-based company known for its edgy guerrilla marketing campaigns for everything from cigarettes to stock brokers.

This time, Interference was pushing the bizarre cartoon that follows the lives and high jinks of three roommates who are talking versions of a pack of French fries, a milk shake and a ball of meat. At least 40 of the signs were placed in 10 cities, depicting one of the show's more popular minor characters, a box-shaped, beer-swilling alien known for extending his middle finger.

Turner issued an apology for the marketing campaign after being condemned by Boston officials, who mistook the battery- and solar-powered signs for bombs and shut down much of the city on Wednesday.

Subways, bridges and one of the city's main arteries, Interstate 93, were shut until authorities in Boston deemed the devices safe. Two young men hired by Interference to plant the signs were arrested and charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct.

That response drew snickers from some of New York's young adults, many of them fans of the show.

"Some older people don't get the humor," said Yves Wilson, 23, a television production assistant from Manhattan who watches "Aqua Teen" with his friends. "Just the fact that the authorities had no clue was hilarious."

Not everyone in New York thought so. The New York Police Department announced it is investigating -- but will do so without shutting down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.