City officials closed down large sections of Boston, including Boston University, several bridges and part of the Charles River last Wednesday after transport police were notified of a suspicious device hanging on a bridge. According to Boston city officials, the black boxes with wires appeared threatening. Hours and thousands of dollars later, it was discovered that these “threatening devices” were actually part of a guerilla marketing campaign for Adult Swim’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” The devices resemble Lite-Brites and each depicts a Mooninite, a show character.
Although Ed Board understands that such reactions may be necessary in the post-Sept.11 world, Boston’s demands that Ted Turner, president of Cartoon Network parent company TBS, compensate the city are unfounded, as are the arrests of the two men hired to place the advertisements.
The Mooninite Lite-Brites had been in place for two to three weeks and the same advertisements had been placed in nine other cities, including New York, Chicago and Seattle. Boston was the only city that reacted that way. It seems that if city officials really had that tight of a grip on the city’s security, they would have been aware of the devices shortly after they were placed – not two to three weeks later after a phone tip. And although we’re not that familiar with bombs, we hope that Boston’s bomb squad knows enough to recognize a light board from a bomb.
Boston city officials did what they thought they had to do in the face of a serious threat. They just weren’t great at accurately assessing the threat, which is essential. If city officials panic at every suspicious box and phone call they receive, cities would be in a constant state of panic. Furthermore, Boston city officials, embarrassed with their overblown reaction to what was essentially a prank, obviously want to blame somebody, but the first question they asked shouldn’t have been to Ted Turner to compensate them for their own actions. The first questions should have been asked of the city officials themselves. How did these devices go unnoticed for so long? How was it not discovered sooner that these devices were, in fact, not threatening?
Boston city officials are also at fault for arresting and holding the charges against the two men hired to place the advertisements. If anything, the companies that commissioned the advertisements to be placed should be charged. The men who placed the advertisements weren’t trying to cause trouble. It was their job, and they were hired by a legitimate company. Boston should drop the charges against these men. We’re sure the city has far more dangerous criminals to prosecute.
Mooninites, with their maniacal plans to steal a belt that will give them the power of the rock group Foreigner, may be threatening to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force. But they aren’t close to being threatening to humans in the real world. We commend Boston officials for addressing what they perceived to be a threat so thoroughly, but suggest that Boston take responsibility for the way it dealt with the situation.
