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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Creates Terrorism Scare In Boston
Posted by Pile
(13096 views)      [E-Mail link]
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[Viral Marketing]
[Terroir-ism] |
 A television network's marketing campaign went badly awry on Wednesday, causing a day-long security scare in Boston that closed bridges, shut major roads and put hundreds of police on alert.
UPDATE: The two ad people responsible for planting the displays have been arrested and plead not guilty, and agreed to only answer reporters' questions regarding hair styles of the 1970s. Check out the video of the press conference and learn (about 70s hair styles, and how little a sense of humor mainstream media has). |
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Police mistook the small, battery-powered electronic billboards as possible improvised bombs.
The discovery of the first one on a bridge led police to stop morning rush-hour traffic on an interstate highway just north of Boston, halt a busy train line, cordon off the area and deploy a bomb squad, which blew it up.
By afternoon, at least nine more of the "suspicious" devices were found. Authorities mobilized emergency crews, federal agents, bomb squads, hundreds of police and the U.S. Coast Guard as traffic froze in parts of the city.
The billboards, encased in dark plastic, consisted of blinking lights wired to an electronic circuit board to project an animated cartoon image in an outdoor promotion for a show on Turner's Cartoon Network called "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
"The 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner Broadcasting System Inc., a unit of Time Warner Inc., said in statement.
It said the devices, which police said resembled improvised exploding devices, had been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens were released on $2,500 bail, said Mike Rich, their attorney. The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for March 7.
Both men were cooperative with authorities, and neither has a previous criminal record in Massachusetts, Grossman said.
At a news conference after the hearing, Stevens and Berdovsky stepped to the microphones and said they were taking questions only about 1970s hairstyles.
When a reporter accused them of not taking the situation seriously, Stevens responded, "We're taking it very seriously." Asked another question about the case, Stevens reiterated they were answering questions only about hair and accused the reporter of not taking him and Berdovsky seriously.
Reporters did not relent and as they continued, Berdovsky disregarded their queries, saying, "That's not a hair question. I'm sorry."
Their attorney said the two were putting on a "performance," and noted that he had told them not to discuss the case.
Putting them up:
What Boston really thought:
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