"Aqua Teen" hoax causes scare in Boston

[nwafan20]

'Aqua Teen' hoax causes bomb scare in Boston
January 31, 2007

By KEN MAGUIRE

Associated Press Writer

BOSTON -- More than 10 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 publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict 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, who said he'll speak to the state's attorney general "about what recourse we may have."

Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.

"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement, issued a few hours after reports of the first devices came in.

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.

The marketing company responsible for the campaign, Interference Inc., had no immediate comment. A woman who answered the phone at the New York-based firm's offices on Wednesday afternoon said the firm's CEO was out of town and would not be able to comment until Thursday.

There were no reports from police Wednesday of residents in the other nine cities spotting similar devices.

Austin police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said the marketing company told the department about the devices Wednesday afternoon and was working with the city to remove them. She did not know where the devices were placed and said no one had contacted police about seeing one.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he'll seek to punish those responsible, and indicated that the penalty could be two to five years in prison per count.

After Turner made its announcement, Menino said he was "prepared to take any and all legal action" against the company and its affiliates "for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today's incidents."

"That would include any criminal or civil action," Menino spokeswoman Meaghan Maher later clarified. Boston Police would not comment on any potential charges.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke praised Boston authorities for sharing their knowledge quickly with Washington officials and the public.

"Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world," Knocke 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. A similar device was found Wednesday evening just north of Fenway Park, police spokesman Eddy Chrispin said.

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 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.


http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...7/70131046/1035 (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070131/NEWS07/70131046/1035)


This is NOT funny, I was watching live as they started discovering these packages. It is a homeland security threat and very irresponsible on the parties involved.

[Nick]

I'm watchin the show on my DVR right now, same thing I do every night.

[T-Bird76]

I found this interesting report containing other totally pathetic attempts to market this new cartoon of there's. IMO the Cartoon Network should be brought up on criminal charges and the people responsible for these promotions should be thrown in jail for causing what they did in Boston. More so the dam Network should be fined out of existence.


Quote:
Scott Ott reports: "Turner puts other 'edgy' marketing plans on hold." Scott has discovered some of the other public relations promotions that were to be rolled out to generate interest in the adult cartoon show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force":

- Renting a 747 painted with the show’s name and flying it past skyscrapers in major cities

– Hiring young men to show up in malls, on buses and other heavily-trafficked areas who would suddenly whip open their coats to reveal a special vest with blinking lights, and begin shouting the theme song of the show.

– “Abducting” strangers, blindfolding them, forcing them to their knees and then broadcasting their videotaped “confessions” that they love the cartoon.

– Hiring young men to suddenly stand up on buses and airliners and loudly declare that the new cartoon is “da bomb.”

– Planting hundreds of improvised advertising devices (IAD) that would suddenly flash, make a loud noise and scatter thousands of promotional fliers all over the road or sidewalk.

– Mounting a “viral” marketing campaign in which dozens of journalists would each receive an envelope containing a white powder along with a note daring the recipient to hold his breath until the debut of the new cartoon.

–Calling the White House, Pentagon, Supreme Court and other famous places and claiming to have planted a “dirty bomb” on the front steps, which turns out to be a paper bag full of dog droppings with the show’s logo stamped on the bag.

“These promotional gimmicks are designed to appeal to the kind of adult who would stay up late to watch cartoon characters who use foul language and obscene gestures,” the Turner source said.

What won't they think of next?

[Matt Molnar]

Sorry, but these things didn't look like bombs at all. They were placed in NINE other major cities, yet Boston was the only one that went bananas. Something is wrong there.

[moose135]

Sorry, but these things didn't look like bombs at all. They were placed in NINE other major cities, yet Boston was the only one that went bananas. Something is wrong there.

Not only that, but they were in place for at least two weeks. Some of the other "ideas" that Tommy posted sure sound like they were asking for trouble, but from what I saw on the news from Boston, it sounds like they grossly overreacted.

Last year, as part of a promotion for a new movie, the LA Times (owned by Newsday's parent, the Tribune Company) installed small units in a number of newspaper vending machines with a pre-recorded message that would play when the box was opened. Someone saw one of them (with wires and such attached, and called 911. The bomb squad ended up responding, and they blew up one vending machine to detonate the "bomb". Never thought to talk to anyone from the Times before doing that.

[cancidas]

that company is just stupid, definatly should be sued out of existence for thier moronic ideas. i've got a very twisted sense of humor, but that's just not funny.

[Nick]

Mayor Mannino is a mushmouthed tool of a mayor.

[Matt Molnar]

Last year, as part of a promotion for a new movie, the LA Times (owned by Newsday's parent, the Tribune Company) installed small units in a number of newspaper vending machines with a pre-recorded message that would play when the box was opened.

I remember that. Sure enough, on the wire today...


LA Times faces legal action over news-stand 'bomb' alert (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/01/070201193232.ooqqhaxc.html)
The Los Angeles Times and movie studio Paramount could face a federal lawsuit after a publicity stunt to promote "Mission: Impossible III" sparked a bomb scare, the paper reported.

Anyway, here's a video of the guys setting up the non-bombs in Boston.
Iv9s_fz0K2I

[PhilDernerJr]

Why would anyone think it was a bomb? Can someone clue me in?

OH MY GOD!! AL QAEDA IS ATTACKING US WITH MIDDLE FINGERING LITE BRITES!!!

http://www.bowesproductions.com/images/ci_lightbrite1.jpg

Get a ****in grip, Boston.

[moose135]

Why would anyone think it was a bomb? Can someone clue me in?

Because people are stupid, and when they have been told repeatedly to be afraid of their own shadow because it may be a terrorist, any little thing can set them off.

[Nick]

So, we're smarter than the people who run Boston? I knew it!

[moose135]

So, we're smarter than the people who run Boston? I knew it!

I don't know, but at least someone at my company thinks so:


NYC triumphs over cartoon villain, Beantown shuts down
BY JOHN VALENTI
Newsday Staff Writer
February 1, 2007, 3:52 PM EST

Maybe the citizens of Boston should be thankful it wasn't The Grinch, Wiley E. Coyote or Cruella Deville who came to town on Wednesday.

Wonder what would have happened then?

After all, Beantown cops shut down the city Wednesday over a Turner Broadcasting Cartoon Network -- [adult swim] -- promotion for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Mooninites, a cartoon about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.

To hype the cartoon, the network hired an agency to distribute 38 blinking signs with a picture of one of the main cartoon character's giving everyone the finger. Mooninite Ignignokt -- as the mischevious toon is named -- showed up in lights on bridges, near buildings and around subways.

It created a panic that the city was part of some sinister terrorism plot.

Oh, my God! It's Meatwad, Master Shake and Frylock!

Can Osama Bin Laden be all that far behind?

<snip>

By the way, Boston: Not one New York City resident made a 911 emergency call in response to the promotion here Wednesday -- and, unlike Beantown, Manhattan has really been the target of terrorist attacks. [See the real 9/11.] Which begs for a question: How many calls do you get when the Yankees come in and assault The Green Monster?

Okay, so maybe it's because New Yorkers are too casual about stuff like lightboxes with dangling wires and batteries being attached to some bridges or hanging in some subway station tunnel in the Village.

Or maybe it's because we actually have some sense -- and sensibility. You know, real terror plots versus cartoons.

Suffice it to say, however, that Bostonians overreacted to all this stuff just a wee bit.

[cancidas]

i think that most of us in NYC have been desensatized to a lot of things over the years. or maybe beantown just wanted it's name on the 6 o'clock news.

[T-Bird76]

I think some of you are forgetting there was intent in making people think something was up, therefor Boston prob took the right action. God forbid it was bomb and they did nothing the Gov't would have its head on a platter. The fact of the matter is this was done in poor taste. Next time use a ****ing billboard.

[nwafan20]

I think some of you are forgetting there was intent in making people think something was up, therefor Boston prob took the right action. God forbid it was bomb and they did nothing the Gov't would have its head on a platter. The fact of the matter is this was done in poor taste. Next time use a ****ing billboard.

I agree 100%, they weren't just planting them randomly, if they were why would they put them under overpasses, IN A HOSPITAL, and other areas like that. The other promotions they were planning to do just further show their intentions.

[RDU-JFK]

Also agree that Boston took the right actions. People need to be vigilant, and if you see an electronic device on the street, people need to say something. Thank god Boston took this seriously. So now everyone laughs at Boston police and think that they were out of line. People develop a false sense of security and if some nut plants a lite-brite pipe bomb or something in Times Square, nothing will happen, because people will think it's just a stupid advertising ploy. It explodes, then the city gets criticized for not doing anything about it. Good for Boston.

[pgengler]

Also agree that Boston took the right actions. People need to be vigilant, and if you see an electronic device on the street, people need to say something. Thank god Boston took this seriously. So now everyone laughs at Boston police and think that they were out of line. People develop a false sense of security and if some nut plants a lite-brite pipe bomb or something in Times Square, nothing will happen, because people will think it's just a stupid advertising ploy. It explodes, then the city gets criticized for not doing anything about it. Good for Boston.

Well, I think that this attitude is best summed up by a comment from one of the lawyers for the 2 men arrested in Boston:

If somebody had left a VCR on the ground it would have been a device with wires, electronic components and a power source.
(Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ ... columnists (http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-nyhen025076777feb02,0,5672923.column?coll=ny-news-columnists))

I also found this quote to be right on point (in a larger context):

"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."
(Source: http://cbs2chicago.com/seenon/local_sto ... 81522.html (http://cbs2chicago.com/seenon/local_story_032081522.html))

I can understand why a city might overreact to something like this (as I think Boston did), but if the only reaction is always an overreation it's going to be a "boy who cried wolf" thing, and people are going to become desensitized to it.

Yes, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim/whatever agency could probably have chosen a better idea, but it's worth noting that Boston wasn't the only city in which the devices were set up, but it's the only one that went in to full-blown hysteria mode about them.

What I find most ridiculous about this is the way that some officials in Boston feel the need to try to connect this to 9/11, to make it even more of an overblown threat and apparently to keep the people in fear:


"Just a little over a mile away from the placement of the first device, a group of terrorists boarded airplanes and launched an attack on New York City," police Commissioner Edward Davis said.
(Source: http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/0202 ... vices.html (http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/02022007/massnews-ph-ma-suspiciousdevices.html))

So what? There were some of these in NYC too, which was the place ATTACKED on 9/11, and there wasn't an overreaction. The fact that some of the 9/11 terrorists boarded a plane in Boston is mostly irrelevant, and in this case is entirely irrelevant.

----

One thing I think that everyone needs to consider, and you'll probably have your own ideas that differ from mine, is where the line is that something suspicious deserves full police attention. It seems like the consensus of people posting in this thread is that the Boston incident is on the "full reaction" side, but I imagine that most of you would argue that our hobby, taking photos of planes, is on the "safe" side and, while we might expect police to drop by and ask what we're up to, we'd think it an overreaction if a SWAT team showed up, even though a passer-by might see a big lens, mistake it for something like a rocket launcher, and call the police about it.

In that case, what do you expect the police to do? If they just sent one officer by to "check it out", they're not securing the area or anything, just trying to figure out if something IS a threat before "sending in the cavalry"; why couldn't Boston have done something similar, and had one person check it out before shutting down parts of the city?

[T-Bird76]

Phil taking pictures of planes in an open area for all to see is far more less suspicous then similar packages being place around a city. The police come up to us all the time, generally now they are more then professional and don't over react.

I'd really like to see the packages in question to see what they really look like.

[RDU-JFK]

Quote from the defendants: "If somebody had left a VCR on the ground it would have been a device with wires, electronic components and a power source."


An unplugged VCR on a sidewalk is one thing, pgengler, but something with flashing lights put in a concealed area such as under an overpass is another. How many VCRs do you see in underpass corners?


And what happens if some wacko terrorist sees the media mocking Boston, and he/she decides to create a bomb similar to this advertising ploy and it explodes, killing people? People are supposed to dismiss it since it couldnt possibly be a bomb? If we develop too much of a comfort zone then the terrorists might catch on play this against us. It's better to be safe than sorry and to keep your eyes open. What's the harm in that?


[/quote]

[pgengler]

An unplugged VCR on a sidewalk is one thing, pgengler, but something with flashing lights put in a concealed area such as under an overpass is another. How many VCRs do you see in underpass corners?

Well, I suppose it depends on the overpass, but in my experience they tend to be places where all sorts of trash is dumped, including VCRs, but I'll concede that they aren't blinking.


And what happens if some wacko terrorist sees the media mocking Boston, and he/she decides to create a bomb similar to this advertising ploy and it explodes, killing people? People are supposed to dismiss it since it couldnt possibly be a bomb? If we develop too much of a comfort zone then the terrorists might catch on play this against us. It's better to be safe than sorry and to keep your eyes open. What's the harm in that?

Well, it's certainly possible for an actual terrorist to do that, but it's possible for an actual terrorist to do all sorts of things that wouldn't think twice about. A terrorist could pose as a homeless guy with a shopping cart full of garbage, and most New Yorkers wouldn't find that suspicious, but it's possible for the garbage to be concealing explosives. There are a million ways that a terrorist could strike, but it's completely unreasonable to expect that we react in force to everything that MIGHT be an explosive device. I understand that we should be vigilant, but we shouldn't be paranoid either.

[pgengler]

Phil taking pictures of planes in an open area for all to see is far more less suspicous then similar packages being place around a city. The police come up to us all the time, generally now they are more then professional and don't over react.

I'd really like to see the packages in question to see what they really look like.

There are some photos that some posted to Flickr here (http://flickr.com/photos/xjohnpaulx/sets/72157594495156125/). I don't think it looks very bomb-like, but I also recognize the character, so perhaps I'm a little biased; most people have probably never even heard of the show and would not be able to recognize the character.

I think people just need to be a little more rational, and a little less emotional, when it comes to dealing with these things, especially the people who are supposedly trained to handle these sorts of things. Just because something has wires and electronics doesn't mean it's a bomb, nor is it inherently any more or less likely to be a bomb than a trash can, or a backpack, or whatever. Lots of people tend to find that more suspicious, though; however, I'd expect law enforcement to be a little more aware and not leap to the conclusion that it's likely a bomb because it has wires.

As I said in my previous post, underpasses often find themselves collecting trash; anyone who wanted to put a bomb there, even one who was cheap or in a hurry and didn't want to do better concealment, could put it in a black garbage bag, place it in the same spot, and it wouldn't attract any attention. Lots of things we find "suspicious" are only that way because they aren't the norm; it doesn't necessarily mean they're a threat, just as something isn't necessarily a threat because we find it normal.

[Nick]

Dumbasses, only in Hollywood do bombs have lights, and even then, do they look like cartoon characters? If you really believe they did the right thing, what about the other 9 cities who took no action. I guess they're the idiots.

[hiss srq]

I think that boston was good to act as they did in response to the fears of some but to put these guys behind bars I disagree. It is advertising. Maybe a little over the edge yes but kind of creative. I do not think it should be made to be as huge a deal as I fear it is going to be made to be. Someone commented on being complacent and I agree we need to be on our toes but hey it is done it is over with and I think it was kind of funny.

[RDU-JFK]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070205/ap_ ... us_devices (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070205/ap_on_re_us/suspicious_devices)

[Matt Molnar]

Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com):


MEMO: CARTOON NETWORK PRESIDENT RESIGNS OVER BOSTON BOMB SCARE BLUNDER
Fri Feb 9 2007 13:56:11 ET

To: Colleagues
From: Jim Samples

I am sure you are aware of recent events in which a component of an Adult Swim marketing campaign made Turner Broadcasting the unintended focus of controversy in Boston and around the world. I deeply regret the negative publicity and expense caused to our company as a result of this campaign. As general manager of Cartoon Network, I feel compelled to step down, effective immediately, in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch. It's my hope that my decision allows us to put this chapter behind us and get back to our mission of delivering unrivaled original animated entertainment for consumers of all ages. As for me, there will be new professional challenges ahead that will make the most of the experiences I've had as part of this remarkable company. Through my 13 years at the company I have found myself continuously in awe of the talented artists and business people surrounding me, from those who realize their vision in creating a cartoon to those who so brilliantly deliver the animation to viewers. I will always cherish the experience of having worked with you. I appreciate the support that you have shown me. As a friend and a fan, I also look forward to seeing your best and most personally fulfilling work yet. Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang and each of you deserve nothing less.