A marketing campaign by Cartoon Network caused a lot of commotion this week. During the last two or three weeks, the TV network placed magnetic lights showing cartoon characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia. This photo by Todd Vanderlin shows an electronic device hanging beneath an overpass in Boston on Monday.
On Tuesday Bostonians flipped, calling in bomb squads, shutting down the "T", closing roads and basically paralyzing downtown Boston. Soon it became clear that this was nothing but a guerrilla marketing hoax. Boston Mayor, Thomas Minino, was not amused, saying "it is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme." Mike Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security congratulated Boston with the alert response, while it really had been the other nine cities that had kept their cool.
We'll probably see more of this. In one sweeping and inexpensive maneuver, Aqua Teen Hunger Force jumped to the top of search engines, blogs and received coverage from just about every major media source. Compared to the estimated $2.6 million it will cost for thirty seconds of publicity during Sunday's Super Bowl, this phony bomb scare certainly got a lot more bang for the buck.
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