Boston was thrown into a tizzy when an attempt by Cartoon Network to promote its upcoming “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” feature film backfired into a perceived terrorist plot.
Apparently little electronic blinky devices based upon the ATHF character “Mooninite” have been showing up in major cities all across the country. But only in Beantown did citizens suddenly start worrying that these promotional devices were, in fact, part of an insidious terrorist scheme. As a consequence, the bomb squad has been spending its time running around the city defusing harmless toys, and now police have arrested the poor hapless bášŧárd who was hired to put the things up around the city.
The reason it’s of particular interest to this blog is that New England Comics (which, by the way, I’m told is having a 50% off sale that ends today) was one of the sites to receive one of the devices, and hilarity ensued. My daughter, Gwen, a store employee, was interviewed by local TV news. Click on the site link below and go to the section “Comic Book Store Employees Discuss Hoax.”
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/index.html
PAD
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Posted by: Jerry Chandler at February 3, 2007 02:46 PM
They were dealing with an unknown device that no one was claiming ownership of and had, from what I’ve seen so far, no easily identifiable ownership markings on the device.
Except for, y’know, the big blinking Mooninite, which a lot of people apparently found fairly recognizable, since they were up for a couple of weeks (The ones that weren’t pulled down and promptly put up on ebay) before anybody called the police.
Now, I’ll readily concede that once called, the police likely had to act within certain regulations, whether anybody on the force recognized the Mooninites or not, and particularly if the whole situation occurred on a day when actual devices were found. But the city and state officials’ reactions after the fact were pretty over-the-top.
There are real threats out there, but I worry about getting to a point where people see bombs in every forgotten purse, bag of litter, and delivery box. Such a state of hyper-vigilance can’t be maintained indefinitely. There has to be a way to remain watchful without jumping at every shadow or trying litterers as suspected terrorists.
Posted by: Darren J Hudak at February 3, 2007 08:55 PM
So again I would argue that there are different levels of “Shut down” and that it’s sometimes a matter of perspective.
Tell me about it. Living within a couple of miles of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I’m smack in the middle of the traffic lockdown that occurs a couple times a year for a few hours after a big race, and Indianapolis police are not terribly impressed that I work at a hospital downtown and have to go that way to get there.
-Rex Hondo-
To Bill Mulligan, Jerry Chandler, & Sean Scullion: Fine. No fruitcake for you next Christmas.
Well, not so fast; my driveway has a big pothole.
“Except for, y’know, the big blinking Mooninite, which a lot of people apparently found fairly recognizable, since they were up for a couple of weeks (The ones that weren’t pulled down and promptly put up on ebay) before anybody called the police.”
You have to know what a Mooninite is to know you’re looking at someting to do with ATHF or Cartoon Network. I like some of Cartoon Networks stuff, I’ve seen a couple eps back whne it started and I didn’t know what the hëll it was. The only thing from the show I might recognize is the big red head thing and the food guys.
You’re also going under the idea that everybody saw the things from day one. Well, people see things for days at a time before they actuallt “see” what they’re looking at. Change your hair, shave your beard or get new glasses and it may be a full week before people you know or work with are asking you, “say, have you….”
Change something very small in a work enviroment without telling anyone and many people may not notice it for weeks. Stick a tiny device up on a building in a major city and likely 9 out of ten people may never notice it.
I doubt that there’s aposter here who can say that he/she hasn’t slapped their head in wonder at the people around them for failing to notice something for days on end that was right there in front of their faces. I also doubt that there’s a poster here who hasn’t been the blind man at least a few times themselves. I’ll admit that I have.
And who knows what they thought when they started finding out that they had odd looking unkown electronic devices planted on buildings and bridges all over town and no one was stepping forward to claim ownership? The big screw up here was no one thinking to get all their stuff in order and getting permits or letting the need-to-know people know what was up before M-Day hit.
“But the city and state officials’ reactions after the fact were pretty over-the-top.”
No argument there. No argument at all. I’ve said as much myself. They’ve been sounding nuts with some of statements coming out of City Hall and with what they’ve been talking about charging the stoners with.
// Change something very small in a work enviroment without telling anyone and many people may not notice it for weeks. Stick a tiny device up on a building in a major city and likely 9 out of ten people may never notice it. //
I’m reminded of the first season of the new Doctor Who where the doctor explains that he never fixed the circuit that allowed the Tardis to change shape because he liked a blue box, stick a blue box anywhere and people tend to walk right past it.
Posted by: Jerry Chandler at February 3, 2007 11:07 PM
You have to know what a Mooninite is to know you’re looking at someting to do with ATHF or Cartoon Network.
The same could be said of any trademarked or copywrited (sp?) character, emblem, or logo. The fact that whoever called the “device” in and the bulk of the BPD apparently fall pretty far outside ATHF’s target demographic doesn’t change the fact that it’s clearly recognizable as a particular character from a specific show.
Now, without knowing the pertinent statutes covering advertising or exactly where the devices were found, I can’t know for sure whether or not the “perps” legally needed to notify somebody any more than a person putting up “lost puppy” posters.
Also, not knowing the exact timeline, it’s entirely possible Cartoon Network and Turner Broadcasting didn’t even know there was an issue until they were called, their offices not being in Boston. As I recall, they didn’t have any trouble claiming ownership of the ads when asked about them.
Also, again witout knowing the precise placement of the ads, one can assume fairly safely that, being part of a marketing campaign, they were placed to be seen. Again, we’re not talking a “tiny device up on a building in a major city.” They were bright blinking signs. If they genuinely went unnoticed for two weeks, then either the people of Boston are unbelieveably oblivious, or they guys responsible put them in the most piss-poor places imaginable.
Of course, it’s pretty much a moot point if the charges are dropped, which they should be. Also, though they can’t do it too openly, the CN folks have got to just be pìššìņg themselves in glee over all the free advertising they got out of this. For the price of a few LEDs, there’s hardly a person in this country who hasn’t heard of Aqua Teen Hunger Force now.
Of course, I feel I should note, if it should come to light that somebody on staff at CN called in the bomb scare themselves, they deserve whatever happens to them.
I’m also curious to see if the Boston beauraucrats actually cool their jets or if they try to pressure theaters into not showing the movie when it comes out.
-Rex Hondo-
Is it just me, or does that Boston channel have the same “5” logo as Babylon 5?
Can anyone give me a link to a picture of one of these litle ditties? Preferably one with other objects in it so i can get an idea of the size?
E-mail it to me at fairportfan@gmail.com, if so.
I’ve been a customer of that store for a year and a half. How many times have I bought comics from Peter David’s daughter without realizing it?? My life has changed forever.
Mike W, without hunting down a comparative photo, I do know you can find them fairly quick by checking the ones that are being auctioned on ebay.
-Rex Hondo-
“…doesn’t change the fact that it’s clearly recognizable as a particular character from a specific show.”
No, it doesn’t. But you seem to be missing the point I was making about ownership ID. I haven’t seen one picture of these things were you could see, front or back, anything referencing a trademark, copyright, Cartoon Network, Turner or ATHF itself. Nor have I read anything that would lead one to believe that these things had any of that in any sort of viewable area. See, this presents two problems in my mind.
The first one is how poorly this thing was conceived as an advertisement. What use is an advertisement that doesn’t advertise a product? The only people who would look at these things and see a Mooninite are people who watch the show. No one who who is unfamiliar with the show would see anything other then an odd looking Lite-Brite or pay it no mind at all. Way to grab new fans there.
The second problem is what I touched on above. You may be facing a real problem if you find a strange looking device that nobody is claiming and you can’t ID the item, what it’s meant to be or the owner. People here have brought up VCRs and such as items that could be seen sitting on the street as example of devices with wires and whatnot. Not quite the same. Most people can tell you what that is, ID its function, see things like brand names and serial numbers on it and take a somewhat safe guess that it may have been junked. These things had nothing to ID them and they were unique items. Kinda like homemade bombs and stuff.
“Now, without knowing the pertinent statutes covering advertising or exactly where the devices were found, I can’t know for sure whether or not the “perps” legally needed to notify somebody any more than a person putting up “lost puppy” posters.”
Yeah, but, in my experience, there are some things that are pretty close to universal. You don’t hang banners or ads from major bridges without getting a permit from the locality. Several news stories spoke of one or more of these things being on a bridge. They also pointed out that this was a no-no in the Greater Boston area.
You should also get permission from a building owner if you wish to put something on their building. From the interview PAD linked and from the film that the guys shot of themselves putting these things up after dark (And has anybody even heard anything about BPD talking about or looking for the third guy that was filming them as they put these things up?) they were just walking around the city sticking them wherever they thought would be a cool place to put one. Correct me if I’m wrong here because my dial up is useless for double checking the interview, but didn’t Gwen say that they didn’t know about the thing being put up until after it was there? And I’ve seen a few other remarks like that in the news coverage.
The guys screwed up. They should have gotten permits or permission to put the things on the bridge (city property) and on some of the buildings (private property) to avoid confused looks by owners and calls to somebody to have the things removes. Had they done this, then none of the devices would have remained “unknown” longer then it took to ask a property owner if they knew what was hanging on their property.
“Also, not knowing the exact timeline, it’s entirely possible Cartoon Network and Turner Broadcasting didn’t even know there was an issue until they were called, their offices not being in Boston. As I recall, they didn’t have any trouble claiming ownership of the ads when asked about them.’
Doesn’t change what I said. If Turner or CN didn’t know that their stuff was at the heart of the scare, then it changes nothing in regards to BPD having strange looking devices that no one was claiming ownership of. That they claimed ownership when someone guessed what the things were and asked them is all fine and good, but how fast do you think that would have been done if the ads were better marked or the stoners told everybody whose property they were sticking the things on what they were putting up? Again, it goes back to a screw up by the people putting the things together and putting them up.
“…or if they try to pressure theaters into not showing the movie when it comes out.”
In which case the officials should be made fun of in South Park ASAP. Actually, I’ll bet you money that Parker and Stone have already started their Boston episode just based on this mess as we type.
You’d think the ad agency would have included something about a copyright/trademark notice in the specs for the signs. Perhaps putting the [adult swim] logo under the figure of Err wouldn’t have been practical, but I can’t imagine that it would have busted the budget to print up some stickers that said “TM & (c) 2007 Cartoon Network. All rights reserved” and stick ’em on the boxes.
And, again, I guess Boston didn’t get any of the giant billboards with a censored image of Err shooting the bird like we did in the Baltimore area (I saw one from my doctor’s office window in December)–no other copy, just a picture of Err with a “CENSORED” banner over his raised finger and a small [as] logo in the corner.
Just read the report that the longer-haired sign putter-upper filmed the bomb squad in the area that they’d put up one of the Moonilites. Now, as I’m sure everyone will attest to, when we’re immersed in our respective art/passions/whatever, we can all get kind of clueless, but does anyone buy the idea that this guy didn’t know the bomb squad was about to send his project into the Land Of Million Pieces And Primer Cord? Now, before anyone thinks I’m jumping all over these guys, I could tell you of any of the various times at shows and while editing people remember having complete two-way intelligent conversations with me that I can in no way attest to, having only remembered what I was either writing, filming, or editing. But for him to film the squad doing it? Don’t think it lends plausibility to his case.
BTW, never seen this show. Is it any good? Last thing I watched with any regularity on Adult Swim was Trigun.
Just read the report that the longer-haired sign putter-upper filmed the bomb squad in the area that they’d put up one of the Moonilites. Now, as I’m sure everyone will attest to, when we’re immersed in our respective art/passions/whatever, we can all get kind of clueless, but does anyone buy the idea that this guy didn’t know the bomb squad was about to send his project into the Land Of Million Pieces And Primer Cord? Now, before anyone thinks I’m jumping all over these guys, I could tell you of any of the various times at shows and while editing people remember having complete two-way intelligent conversations with me that I can in no way attest to, having only remembered what I was either writing, filming, or editing. But for him to film the squad doing it? Don’t think it lends plausibility to his case.
BTW, never seen this show. Is it any good? Last thing I watched with any regularity on Adult Swim was Trigun.
Posted by Sean Scullion at February 6, 2007 11:34 PM
BTW, never seen this show. Is it any good?
I know it’s not a terribly useful answer, but it depends on which season you catch. It started out fairly rough, but was pretty good for a couple of seasons. Then, much like Ren & Stimpy, it seemed to descend into just weird for weird’s sake, but still with a bright spot here and there.
As to the incident, if this guy actually thought it would be a bright idea to film the bomb squad, I may just have to retract a lot of what I’ve said up to this point. CN needs to distance themselves from these yahoos as much as possible, like, yesterday, before it comes out that one of them actually did call it in to the police, just for the publicity.
-Rex Hondo-
They were in some places for 2 or 3 weeks. How long does a bomb need to be in place before it goes off? Had it been an actual terrorist device, people would now be dead.
I’m not buying the concept that a silly cartoon pulling a goofy advertising stunt is the problem.
I do think the story need a cop with a Monthy Python accent asking “Right! What’s all this then?”
Posted by: Rob at February 7, 2007 08:43 PM
They were in some places for 2 or 3 weeks. How long does a bomb need to be in place before it goes off? Had it been an actual terrorist device, people would now be dead.
How would the bomb squad know how long the devices had been in place?
And your credentials as a bomb technician are… what, exactly?
Posted by: Rob at February 7, 2007 08:43 PM
I do think the story need a cop with a Monthy Python accent asking “Right! What’s all this then?”
Actually, I think a more appropriate ending would be that line from a Steve Martin’s Grandmother’s Song: “Criticize things you don’t know about…”
Peter, I was actually on the air for Channel 5 explaining what Aqua Teen Hunger Force was (somewhat embarassing, no?) while we were interviewing your daughter… she did a fantastic job! The little wave at the end of her live interview was classic. And yes, I did take advantage of that 50% off sale!
But how would Jack Bauer have handled it?
http://emuse.ebaumsworld.com/watch/12522