Boston crippled by Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Steve Safran January 31st, 2007
BY STEVE SAFRAN
MANAGING EDITOR
LOST REMOTE
steviesaf@gmail.com
It’s enough to make you rethink the term “guerrilla marketing.” Police, bomb squads, the feds, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and more all converged on Boston Wednesday because of … a “mooninite.” Viewers of Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” immediately recognized the “devices” as LEDs put on a circuit board and powered by some batteries. The police and the media, however, had the event play out as though there were 10 bombs (and then 10 “hoax bombs”) planted suddenly around Boston. Turns out the devices had been up for weeks. And not just in Boston, but in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, according to Turner Broadcasting, the parent of the Cartoon Network.
So how did the Boston police get so badly shaken? Pictures from the guerrilla marketing campaign are all over Flickr. I had two friends IM me as soon as the story broke: “Don’t they know it’s a Mooninite?” No, they didn’t. And while the police can certainly be forgiven for not recognizing a Turner cartoon character – how about CNN? Someone at Turner could have walked down the hall to CNN, right? The devices were made by a marketing company. They couldn’t tell anyone?
How did this get so out of hand? At the risk of bragging, we broke the story on Lost Remote… out of frustration if nothing else. And way before Turner finally issued a statement explaining what the marketing campaign is. A few other blogs picked up on the story as well, but for the most part the day played out like a major security breach. My buddy, Scott Baker, IMmed me as soon as he saw a picture of the thing. He knew what it was, straight away. Baker is, apparently, smarter than the combined powers of the Massachusetts and federal governments and law enforcement.
Police described the light-up signs as having construction “consistent with an explosive device” which, if you count a circuit board, some lights and a battery taped together, means I have several potential explosive devices in my kids’ playroom.
As a test of security and communications… what an embarrassment. And an equal embarrassment for the media, too. They’re still reporting on these things as “suspicious packages,” long after we have confirmed exactly what they were. It took all day for officials to figure out what this was. All day. Imagine the chaos if these were actual bombs and not cartoon characters.
The media failed to figure out what this was, well after bloggers were already chuckling about it. The police and the federal government couldn’t figure it out. And Turner waited way, way too long to tell anyone. In the era of instant communications, nobody communicated.
If we can’t protect our cities from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, how can we protect them from actual attacks?
26 Comments Add your own
1. thewashingtonchannel | January 31st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
and another battleship has just been sent to do some diplomacy in the waters off iran.
2. Chris Rooney | January 31st, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I understand Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law will be representing Turner Broadcasting in this matter.
3. baker | January 31st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
props to my fellow [dot]comers for getting to the bottom of this. i always had a feeling that watching cartoons at 2am would qualify me for a homeland security position.
as i complained to Safran, it’s one thing that they didn’t recognize a Mooninite when they saw one, but my question is: why isn’t anyone in Massachusettsfederal government or law enforcement qualified to look through a pair of binocluars and say, “it’s just a bunch of LEDs on a circuit board.”
i applaud their concern for our fair city, but something tells me this was a chance for some department training, to break out the toys and blow-up some non-bombs for the cameras.
4. Rob | January 31st, 2007 at 6:51 pm
So, a quick recap:
We - the United States - helped end World War I.
We helped liberate Europe and the Pacific during World War II.
We defended South Korea during the Korean War.
We spent 10 years fighting in Vietnam.
We overran Grenada and Panama.
We won the Cold War.
We overran the Iraqis in Kuwait.
We overran the Iraqis in Iraq.
We were finally defeated in Boston by the Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
5. Jordan | January 31st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
WTAE alum- Scott Baker?
6. Steve Safran | January 31st, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Rob: Yes. It was a good run, though.
7. Cale | January 31st, 2007 at 9:29 pm
The truly funny thing is that KING tv decided to blurr the middle finger. LOL
8. El Dangeroso | February 1st, 2007 at 5:25 am
Holy $@*! A Lite-Brite! Someone call the Department of Homeland Security!
9. discreet_chaos | February 1st, 2007 at 8:07 am
Among other things, the embarrassing over-reation to this bit of guerrilla advertising may have proved that Boston isn’t as sophisticated as Portland.
10. thedetroitchannel | February 1st, 2007 at 8:15 am
d_c, you mean the cement or the city?
11. discreet_chaos | February 1st, 2007 at 8:32 am
Detroit - I can see the headlines;
“Major US City brought to its knees by a Lite-Bright fixed to an awning”
“New Englanders scared of their own shadow”
And, hopefully David Kelley has room for one more script, otherwise we’ll have to wait until next season to watch James Spader twist the knife on their reaction.
I mean, I’ve never watched ATHF, but even I can see that it’s a logo.
12. baker | February 1st, 2007 at 8:32 am
Jordan, this SB is not a WTAE alum
13. mike | February 1st, 2007 at 9:00 am
In Boston’s defense, the Mooninites do have technology that is too advanced for our primitive Earth minds to comprehend with 100% percent of our brains…
14. Alyssa | February 1st, 2007 at 9:06 am
And the marketing company didn’t think to ask some MIT students to make them something more efficient, cooler looking, and less bomb-like for the campaign?
Also- why on bridges and in hospitals? Why not put them on one of the many college campuses here in Boston, where people are pretty likely to watch Adult Swim and recognize the character?
15. Chris Rooney | February 1st, 2007 at 9:35 am
d_c, does this mean six more weeks of winter?
16. Laughing in NY | February 1st, 2007 at 11:43 am
Boston is supposed to be a center of technology..did they ever think to ask someone from MIT? Heck, any 10 year old could have told them what the “devices” were LOL…..an upgraded LiteBrite!!! The mayor, police chief yes even the governor should be forced to resign for incompetence. That was your hard earned tax money that was wasted because of sheer stupidity and over zealousness.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL totally unbelievable!
17. Justin | February 1st, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I don’t know if Boston is just super paranoid or what, but this never would of happened in California. I watched the news and was like they can’t be serious no one knows what this is. Even if they had no clue about Aqua teen hunger force, they never played space invaders? For all the conspiracy theorist out there, take this as a good sign that our government is incapable of such thinking. So the next time you think something dumb like the US government was responsible for 9/11, remember it took them two days to identify a cartoon character that many of us recognized in 5 seconds.
18. roy | February 1st, 2007 at 5:21 pm
hahahahahahahahahah holy fucking shit!!!! err bomb, rotfl
19. jake | February 1st, 2007 at 6:47 pm
all i can say is i love athf and this whole thing just got me excited, i had only heard a description of the “hoax bombs” and already assumed it was ERR or some mooninite, and besides all they do is fire big colored blocks that move real slow
20. REAL Truth Seeker | February 1st, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Justin, you are a very simple-minded useless eater.
21. Laschmaster | February 1st, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I love ATHF. I think it’s ridiculous that those two guys are being charged criminally, and I’m truly frightened for the future of this country. I’m moving to Canada now to be around normal people. This is what we get for having Bush as our leader. If we’re lucky someone will have enough sense to shoot him in the head.
22. Todd | February 1st, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Only an idiot would mistake this device for something dangerous like a bomb. It has a gazillion LED’s on it. It’s obviously what it is. It simply couldn’t be anything else. Who puts LED’s on a bomb ?
Somebody should be questioning the incompetence and lack of training of the Boston police - this is the REAL story here. How is it that so many officers and first responders could be so abysmally incompetent ? Come on, they even felt compelled to blow one of them up.
Congratulations, Boston PD, out of the 8 cities int he US these devices were placed, yours was the only one that managed to mistake LED’s and batteries for a bomb.
23. Aaron | February 1st, 2007 at 11:10 pm
How are you taking it seriously, by causing “widespread panic and destruction.” (reporter question at news conference)
“Level 3, beware the Gorgarton. He’s in love. ”
“Shoot him in the head!”
“Head shot, rampage, killing spree!”
“You have mastered Moon Master, you are the Moon Master!”
“No f–king way!”
“Yes way Err.” (Aqua Teen Hunger Force — Moon Master)
I always knew that Err was a terrorist. As soon as all those Bostonians saw him flipping them off, they immediately came to the same realization.
Once again George W. Bush has saved us all from the evils of 80s era video game characters. Thank heaven for God Emperor Bush and the paranoia he has brought to this great country.
24. Dieselite | February 2nd, 2007 at 1:21 am
I think its just stupid the way the news is referring to them as ‘Hoax Bombs’. Thats just retarded, they’re impling that whoever put those things out there intended for them to be seen as bombs and cause mayhem.
The images of people fleeing the city, buying large quantities of bottled water and massive traffic jams cracked me up.
Anyway, what sort of terrorist sticks a massive LED screen on the front of an inconspicuous bomb and places it in plain sight?
25. AdaM | February 2nd, 2007 at 8:24 am
dieselite- dont forget to add, AND what kind of terrorist lets such a display sit there for 3 weeks? even if it was some ultra hidden terrorist tactic to defy logic at a new level by leaving cartoon chacaters for weeks in the form of unsuspecting bombs, should the boston enforcement people have taken notice earlier?
well, i think they should create a special monitoring team to investigate advertisers as possible terrorists (remember how easy it used to be to call someone a communist even given free speech grantedin the constitution?) and analyze all public advertisements as possible explosives…especially if it has flashing lights around it and resembles a package!… no, better yet, anything placed in public without ferderal or local consent- to be analyzed as possible bomb. what that hell, lets just create a police state. i mean, we have terrorist attacks killing people every day all our major cities right? no? well…. i guess.. theres crime and gang violence isnt there? i guess thats just as bad right?
look i dont like realized terrorist attacks due to lazy defense response either boston… so why didnt you pay attention any earlier instead of praising the efforts in the poitnless evacuating a city and waste of resources as you are now to cover the embarrassment? on the contrary this incident reeks of self-inflicted paranoia, not your ability to 1) use facts and information in a timely manner 2) avoid the propogation of unfounded hysteria 3) and effectively use security resources wihtout blowing close to a million bucks. give me a f-kin break boston.
26. Faith | February 2nd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I dunno. I heard a similar story here in Cincinnati a few weeks ago. I haven’t verified it, but I understand that a group of students created boxes that looked like the question mark boxes from Super Nintendo and hung them around the University of Cincinnati campus. Aparently the campus cops took the boxes down, dusted them for finger prints (by which time they must have noticed that they were empty boxes), hauled the students in and questioned them as terrorists.
It’s not just Boston. This is truely scary. I don’t want to live in a non-silly prank-free world.
Leave a Comment
(Please keep URLs out of the comment body or the spam filter will block you.)Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed