Blinking boxes placed around Boston caused major disruption after worried passers-by called in bomb scares to the local authorities.
Boxes variously described as having blinking lights, looking like circuit boards, and having wires hanging from them, were positioned in ten locations throughout Boston. When the authorities investigated them, they discovered that the devices were a marketing ploy for the adult cartoon
Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
A few hours after the reports began about the devices, Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, sent out a statement to clear up the situation.
The packages, which were magnetic light boxes depicting a cartoon character flipping the bird, had been placed around ten different cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia as a guerilla marketing campaign.
The two men, Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, who were employed to plant the devices around Boston
have been charged with placing hoax devices, and have been released on bail. They contend that they had no intent to cause a panic, and can therefore not, by law, be charged with the offence.
Turner Broadcasting have
agreed to pay $2 million to settle claims and to release themselves from any legal liability.
Several of the devices were being sold on ebay, as of Thursday.
There is a thread regarding this topic
in the forum.
Thanks to all who sent us information.
Comments
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pressconference+hairstyles
So while the two artists in question aren't probably guilty of more than disturbing the peace, they are pretty damn stupid for hanging it up without requesting permission or notifying anyone and I think pretty moronic to use the opportunity for shameless self-promotion. I'd feel a bit more sympathetic to them if they showed some bit of concern about the near panic they caused rather than hair humor. At the very least they could have come up with funnier material.
Considering they'd just been arrested and charged, their concerns were probably elsewhere.
This is paranoia; only Dr. Drakken would make a Doomsday Device that even remotedly resembled one!
As for the near panic, they only panic because of the mass paranoia that has developed in this country, mainly fed by the politicians trying to get elected and the media trying to make a buck off it. Scream 9/11 and everyone starts getting manic. It's great for business.
If people can't put harmless, and harmless looking, objects on display then we're pretty f*'ed up. Terrorism is designed to instill fear and hysteria in a populace, and it's working damn well when people scream 'bomb' first and bother investigating later.
There was nothing to panic over, and if people had bothered to stop and think about it for a minute they would have realized that. Instead it was blown completely out of proportion and panicky leaders were encouraged to run around flailing their arms in wild abandon dredging up 9/11 every time a camera turned on them. I guess the terrorists are winning this 'war'.
There is absolutely no way anyone could have ever thought they were a serious danger. None. Zero. On close inspection they were lights, circuit boards and a D-battery. It is sad that anyone could be so irresponsible of their public duty to hoax the public like that. It is even sadder that the public (like Tim above) think there is something even remotely helpful about the completely irresponsible fearmongering.
One of the greatest logical fallacies of our time is the notion that it is better to be "safe than sorry." This is very wrong and very dangerous. Every time we respond irrationally and fearfully about non-real threats it INCREASES the chance that a real threat will both happen and be ignored. It is the police's and the politician's duty to lead the public in times of risk not make up completely unreal fears out of a few blinking LEDs.
Boston is sadly the world's laughing-stock.
I don't see how charges of "placing hoax devices" or making a bomb threat or anything similar will ever stick. The guys who put up the boxes clearly weren't trying to make people think they were bombs or something else dangerous, they were just trying to advertise a cartoon. And, as many have stated, the devices didn't especially look like bombs or have the word "bomb" painted on them or anything similar.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/09/news/newsmakers/cartoon_network/index.htm?cnn=yes
http://news.google.com/news?q=cartoon%20network%20CEO&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn