Boston Adult Swim publicity stunt?

Question

Anyone hear about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Stunt that appears to have panicked Boston?
(I religously avoid watching the news, I check headlines about once a day, by-product of a past media-relations career)
any thoughts on it?
I'm torn.
On one hand, i'm laughing my butt off of pictures of bomb squads removing eltric signs of cartoon characters (the mooninites for the ATHF faithfull) fliiping the bird, subsequently blowing them up for fear of explosives.
On the other hand, the adult in me says Adult Swim, or whoever was responsible, shouldv'e known better.
what's your opinion of this 'stunt' and the reaction?

Answer 1

Aqua Teen didn't cause the panic, the government overreacted as usual. I found it to be quite funny, in fact, I'll most likely start to watch the show because of it.
A battery pack attached to an l.e.d. light board with a character giving the finger is not what i would call a serious threat to national security.
The government should be ashamed of themselves for fear mongering and helping to create the panic that ensued after their discovery.

Answer 2

They were a fairly cool idea. The concept's not much different than plastering your band's poster to a utility pole or tagging the wall of an underpass with your logo. These just happen to light up and have exposed circuitry.
Then again, I can imagine a teenage demolitionist rigging a bomb with a Mooninite flipping the bird on it, too.

One thing is for dead certain, though: Aqua Teen Hunger Force couldn't have asked for more publicity than the almost-iconic photo of the armed bomb squad agent delicately reaching for the little LED picture like it was a doomsday device.

Answer 3

I have been laughing at this since driving home from work and hearing NPR say they were pictures of "Pac Man like creatures called Mooninities"-I yelled the Mooninites got us and they didn't fire off un-ordered pizza one! ATHF folks will know they love to send pizzas as part of war. I am beyond dumbfounded that the Boston PD spent the day fighting these evil light brights!

Look-these things were up for weeks, they are up in other cities, and it is just this day that the police found them to be terrorist looking? If they are that concerned about terror threats-how the HELL did they slide for 10 days? Is Boston the only city who keeps an eye out for IEDs on city streets (one Boston PD Official I hear talking in a conf said they look just like IED's in Iraq-I didn't know Iraq was so crammed full of light brights). I think Boston officials are beyond embarressed by this and they are attacking the marketing firm and Cartoon Network for setting the stage for them to make asses of themselves.

Yes be vigiliant, yes we should keep up our guard-but for godsake, we all need to laugh and see humor in our day to day activities. If we jump on things like this and start blowing up every single unattended electronic device-we will end up with a nation that is too scared to leave thier own house and lead a normal life. And I had no idea there was a movie on the way-my bedtime is now earlier than ATHF is on-but I do now and I will attend and will by it on DVD and I hope it has bonus footage of "1-31-07". I have family in law enforcement, I respect the police almost with out question, but for the first time I have to say "what the hell". Look out-the folks on Reno 911 will be arrested next for impersonating police officers!

Answer 4

It would be laughable if it were not so asinine on the part of the Boston officials. They duped themselves into believing something was going on that wasn't. It would have been just an ineffective promotion(apparently no one was looking if they were up for weeks and no one called on it)but the fear zealots on the Boston government had to wad waist deep in a pond they did not know the algae from pond scum. Peter Berdovsky are made the stooges because the officials in Boston duped themselves into a bomb scare and wasted so much money. C'mon, common sense say if you are going to plant a bomb on a road way you don't use something decked with a big neon light. People are still in such a "hide your head in the sand, the sky is falling" state of fear they will create terrorist and threats from anything. It would have been an expensive but ineffective promotion(apparently no one really noticed)had the fear monger Boston officials not got into the act. And just because they made fools of themselves they are trying to relabel it a hoax, as to place blame on someone other than their own stupidity. If you see a weather balloon and go tearing down the street in your car and crash it, it is your own fault because you believed it to be something else. A ghost, monster, UFO etc.

O sama and the boys are rolling in their cave. They now know Americans are so scary cats that if they just say "boo!" loud enough we will s**t our drawers. All they have to do is set off a few stink bombs the day After Thanksgiving in select malls and shut down the whole economy without firing off anything larger than an M80. They can't find WMD. Can't detect a unconventional form of outdoor advertising, but they can sure find a farmer how may or may not have attented an Al Qaeda boot camp. I would hate to see them really try to find something and not just something made up after the fact. They flushed the truth out of how stupid they really are themselves and need some patsies to punish for getting them out of the "stupid" closet.

Answer 5

I think it shows how ridiculous the homeland security system is. I heard that it took some cities two or more weeks to even notice the blinking ads let alone suspect them as bombs. I do think that it is a bit funny but at the same time I feel that a bomb squad or other law enforcement authorities should be able to tell the difference between a home-made bomb and a lite brite (Am I dating myself with the lite brite comment?)

Answer 6

Totally irresponsible behavior. PERIOD!

Especially in this day and age!

I have to agree with you 100% though; there was a time in life (before 9/11, obviously) when I, as well as many other people, would have got a kick out of the stunt.

C'mon, admit it! If things were more innocent, we'd all be snickering a little.

Also, it's necessary to play Devil's advocate in some occasions; The ad company wanted the network and Aqua Teen Hunger Force to gain exposure and that objective has most certainly been accomplished, wouldn't you say?

The cold, hard truth of the matter is that Ted Turner and the advertising company made a MAJOR blunder by drumming up advertising the way it did. The responding agencies could have been using their time more productively rather than saving our nation from a show about a talking milkshake. Turner needs to reimburse these agencies the cost of responding, removal of the Lite-Brites, and anything else.

Answer 7

well I'm a big fan of the show people who know the show are saying the police in Boston are stupid if you see it in a good distance you will just see a green little guy giving you the bird. but maybe from a good distance, and you more of these you will think of something about those lights. i think the people in adult swim should have ad's of the little guy before they hung them up. the only time you would see the show is late at night. the older crowd never heard of it because its the same channel with cartoon network. anyway they meant no harm.

Answer 8

This wasn't a stunt! This is like putting a sticker on a stop sign, then being told to take it down! These "bombs" looked like lite-brites and if you've seen the video of the guys putting these up (one is white w/ dreadlocks, and the other just stoned), you cannot mistake these for bombs... But guess who did? Guess who called this bomb threat in? A HARVARD PROFESSOR! Ha! Hilarious... No punishment for advertising in a capitalist society and the free world.

Answer 9

Oh no, the stop light is blinking! Call the police! It was stupid how this was blown so out of proportion. Come on now, It isn't like I freak out over signs. If it was something actually big enough to be an explosive, I might would. The fact is that it was small and was a beloved character, atleast to those of us that watch it.

Answer 10

I think Boston must be full of morons or in the very least, people with paranoia problems. I refuse to live my life like a terrorist is around every street corner. You can live like that if you want to, but then you might as well just say the terrorists have already won.