Guerilla Marketing, Cops and Media Freak Out

Some guerilla marketers, promoting Comedy Central's Aqua Teen Hunger Force cartoon, recently planted artistic electronic signs in various public places in US cities.


Photo via flickr.
In Boston, the police freaked out, and of course the press did its usual sensationalizing, and now a man faces the threat of five years in prison for placing some of the signs as part of his job for the network.

From BBC News:

Boston arrest over security scare

The electronic devices were meant to advertise a cartoon. Police in the US city of Boston are investigating a major American media corporation for causing a security alert that closed bridges and roads.
Police were called out to investigate the suspicious-looking devices and road traffic and rail service was disrupted.

One man has been arrested suspected of placing a hoax device.

Turner Broadcasting System has apologised, saying "the 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger".

In a statement, the corporation said the campaign had already been in place in 10 US cities, including Boston, for several weeks.

Electronic smiley-faces

The small electronic sign-boards were placed near roads and under bridges over the Charles River, prompting suspicion from commuters.

Police destroyed the first package they found to see if it contained explosives.

"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," Turner said.

Police have arrested Peter Berdovsky, 27 - the man hired to place the electronic smiley-faces - on the relatively new charge of placing a hoax device.

He faces up to five years in jail.

Authorities in Boston say they are considering charges against Turner and an advertising company and could demand financial compensation for the massive disruption caused by the marketing campaign gone wrong.

Full story at BBC News.

Photo via flickr
This sort of marketing is not illegal. While it is unfortunate that the cops had a long day because of this, and do we appreciate the job they do, blaming it all on the network seems one-sided. Was it not the police that raised the alarm? Why didn't these signs cause a disruption in the other cities?

Arresting one of the sign installers, and threatening him with five years prison time certainly sounds harsh. I could see bringing in someone who calls in a bunch of known-false bomb scares, but arresting a sign installer?

We didn't give up our rights to such public displays of art.

We didn't give up our rights to such public displays of art.

Using 9/11 as an excuse for curtailing such freedoms is B.S., even if someone from the Department of Homeland Security says otherwise:

"Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world," Russ Knocke, Dept. Homeland Bureaucracy Security.

If he means hoaxes in general, then cart me away (Ken, I'm sorry about that party popper under your desk).

Live free (allowing such nonsence), or die (because a battery powered Lite Brite kills you on your daily commute home), I say.

Flickr search: aqua teen hunger force sign