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Thursday, February 01, 2007

From the "What were they thinking?" Department

I don't usually post news stories, but more people need to hear about this.

Have you heard about the marketing campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Adult Swim? It lead to a few problems, and arrests, around Boston. The story can be found many places, including here.

A couple of quotes form the article:

Authorities have arrested two men in connection with electronic light boards depicting a middle-finger-waving moon man that triggered repeated bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday and prompted the closure of bridges and a stretch of the Charles River.

and

The devices displayed a "Mooninite" -- an outer-space delinquent who makes frequent appearances on the cartoon -- greeting passersby with an upraised middle finger.

Makes me wonder how much thought wass put into the planning.

Of course, I also wonder about the people who saw the "device", a circuit board and battery, and decided to shutdown Boston for a day. Apparently the other 9 cities didn't get shutdown, or at least didn't get any coverage.

1 comment:

  1. Silly people, all of 'em.

    There was a good article in the local free paper about how apparently the ratings for the show had a little blip (probably due to this stunt) but actually decreased in their target demographic (males 18-35 or whatever that category is).

    Maybe people got tired of that publicity stunt really fast.

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