No Shortage on Stupid

The internet is abuzz right now with the story of the “Boston Bomb Scare.” It turned out that those devices spread all about Boston were not only NOT bombs, not only were they not dangerous, but they had apparently been in the city for weeks without a single soul noticing them. In fact, they have been in numerous cities for weeks without so much as a single person noticing them. Then, suddenly yesterday the Boston police receive 911 calls reporting strange devices all around the city and it becomes national news. This makes me say “hummmmmmmm.”

The devices were not bombs or anything else nefarious, but rather a marketing gimmick thought up by the Cartoon Network to promote their show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They placed these devices in cities such as New York, Seattle, and Boston among others to raise awareness of the show and the upcoming movie. Since they were up for weeks it is safe to assume the marketing campaign did not work at all. It is also safe to assume that, since the Boston police is claiming that “"there's no indication it came from panicked residents" that the calls therefore came from the Cartoon Network because they had placed all these ads everywhere weeks ago and no one noticed them. If you run an ad and no one talks about it, does it really advertise anything?

The city of Boston is charging two employees of Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc with “placing a hoax device that results in panic and disorderly conduct.” Can they really say it caused a panic if no one saw them? Either way, the accused claim it was harmless advertising, but September 11th did change many of the unwritten rules we live by. While I do not believe these men should be charged personally with anything because they were doing their jobs and probably assumed the company had gotten the proper clearance before starting such a campaign, the Cartoon Network and Turner Broadcasting should have to reimburse Boston for the resources spent to deal with the chaos they caused and they should be fined for creating a public hoax. There are rules as to how advertisers can go about their business and they knew exactly what they were doing which is why it was done in such major population centers and done covertly.

We are not here for the business world to manipulate and toy with no matter how much they think we are. Right now everyone is talking about this story and including the release date for the movie I had no idea was even coming out. See, it worked. I say we boycott the movie now just to show them we don’t like being toyed with. It is time we remind businesses and governments and celebrities that they work for us, not the other way around. They exist because we allow them too. We pay them. We are not cash registers for them and, if we do not like what they are selling we need to remind them that they need us.

Yea, I am talking about Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but I am not going to be seeing any time soon. When I do talk of it I will be discussing that show that obviously cannot survive on the merit of its work and, instead must create controversy for ratings. What else should I assume of a show that has been on for a while obviously, yet this is the first I have noticed it and they had to do this for that notice? Remember, I am a cartoon fan so for me to not know this show must make it really lame.