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It’s not often that a marketing story headlines the nightly newscast. But there it was on Boston stations tonight, close at the heels of American Idol and carrying a few lessons for us all. What played out as a bomb scare in various locations around the city today turned out to be a guerilla marketing campaign orchestrated by Interference Inc. in a campaign for the Adult Swim TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force....
Boson artist Peter Berdovsky, hired by Interference, was arrested last night in connection with the hoax, in which he hid 38 circuit board packages featuring little LED-lit guys (and their upright middle fingers), known as Mooninites.
Prior to that, however, Boston’s bomb squad had a busy day, detonating one of the devices and removing others from under bridges, a hospital, highway overpasses, Urban Outfitters and subway stations. Traffic was a mess; city officials were panicked.
Interference was hired by Turner Broadcasting, which produces Aqua Teen Hunger Force on its Cartoon Network. Last night, Turner spokesman Shirley Powell issued a statement, "The 'packages'' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim’s animated television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger."
Two lessons here:
First, market responsibly. In a post 9-11 world, it seems near crazy to tuck blinking packages with wires protruding near major municipal hubs and landmarks. Fenway Park? Sullivan Square MBTA stop? What were they thinking? Last time I went through airport security, they confiscated my 10-year-old's SpongeBob toothpaste. That's how crazy the world is, and unfortunately that's the lens through which municipal leaders view any blinking devices.
But take heart, city officials: there's a easy fix at hand. Simply: Read blogs! Boston officials could have avoided the emergency response drill if they only read bloggers or trolled Flickr. Interactive Designer Todd Vanderlin two weeks ago was psyched to find one of the little guys up on a Boston bridge. He promptly grabbed it to sell it on eBay. He uploaded photos of the stunt here on January 15th.
It's good to know that Boston’s emergency response system seems to be in fighting shape – responding flawlessly and seamlessly to what became little more than a drill. Joshua Glenn on his "Brainiac" blog suggests that ordinary citizens and their wi-fi laptops, cellphones, Treos and the like would be far more effective at recognizing signs of terrorist attacks than any governmental organization. My advice is only that the Boston Bomb Squad now subscribe to Vanderlin’s blog feed – he's all they really need. |
Comments
Ann: where to start. Are you a football fan? I'm a Redskin fan. Many years ago, then-coach Norv Turner was asked his reaction to his then-quarterback Gus Frerotte's decision when, after scoring a touchdown on a bootleg, he ran through the back of the end zone and headbutted the stadium wall, giving himself a concussion.
Norv replied, "I never thought to tell him not to do that."
Marketers are creative people. Sometimes you just have to let Darwin do his job and cull guys like these from the herd for everyone's sake.
Posted by: Stephen Denny | 02.01.07
I give props for the campaign, although definitely these items should not be around bridges!
However, public transportation areas are great because of the incredible amount of foot traffic. What's the real danger folks? "Oh golly, what is that silly thing over there? Is it giving me the bird? How obscene!"
Posted by: Mario Vellandi | 02.01.07
ann, i do remember when to support the launch of the movie
"12 monkeys" we spray on the wall along the main street in milan and rome the movie logo, the three monkeys "i don't see, i don't hear, i don't speak". it was a huge success. but it was the 1995 and we share with client a certain amount of money of fines issued by the municipality. today world has gone crazy.
Posted by: gianandrea facchini | 02.01.07
Anne - Maybe I'm one of the people who would have panicked and headed for the hills over Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast, but when my sister called yesterday to ask what was going on in Boston, and I heard that there may have been a bomb found in Sullivan Square, and another on the Longfellow Bridge, I broke into a cold sweat - my 9 year old niece goes to school a mile from Sullivan Square. What if? What if? What if?
The lack of judgement on the part of the folks who put these signs - which apparently "featured" exposed wires and batteries on one side, and which (under daylight conditions) even someone "in the know" might not have been able to interpret as a cartoon character - under bridges and overpasses is profound in this day and age. Boston may have overreacted, but I'm actually delighted with the show of force by the first responders.
I don't think criminal prosecution for the young "artistes" who were hired to place these signs as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign is warranted, but as a Boston taxpayer, I wouldn't mind getting some money back from whoever concocted this scheme.
Posted by: Maureen Rogers | 02.01.07
To me a hoax would the planting of fake bombs... Faux bombs that actually contained an advertising message. THAT would be inappropriate.
This became a fiasco.
The problems here were a) a lack of understanding of what the LED panels were and b) allowing panic.
No one jumps when - as it gets dark - the lights behind the ad in a bus shelter flicker and turn on. We are familiar with that medium... and they are in a traditional / expected place.
I agree... unfortunately, we are in a time when if you accidentally left your gym bag on the subway - they'd evacuate and send in the bomb squad.
I wonder what will happen to Peter Berdovsky for creating the LED panels?
I wonder if the marketing team supporting the show is excited about the additional exposure their show has received because of this media attention.
Posted by: Paul (from Idea Sandbox) | 02.01.07
Mario,
In response to your question, here are the dangers:
1. Someone could have been hurt, especially emergency responders who exploded several of the devices.
2. Taxpayers were hurt, as the day's event caused the city to spend $500,000.
3. Marketing professionals get hurt because we come off looking stupid.
My question: How hard would it have been for the marketing firm to alert the cities that this campaign was being launched?
Posted by: Lewis Green | 02.01.07
Thanks for covering this Ann. I covered it over in my corner (great...now another city hates marketers!). Lewis has a lot of great points above. Living in an "on-alert" city (NYC) I know what it's like to have the police shut down subway stations over a "mystery" package so I've no doubt NYC would have done the same thing...and we city-dwellers, like the lit signs as part of the campaign, would be flipping-off the marketers behind the scheme for the inconvenience and scare.
But here's my BIG question: Why did it take Turner Broadcasting (producers behind the show) until 5pm to issue a statement when the first device was found at 8am? That's the same thing CNN is asking (and they're owned by Turner).
P.S.: Boston, we're sorry that marketing wrecked your day. There are plenty of innovative marketers who want to delight and not frighten you.
Posted by: CK | 02.01.07
I am all for buzz marketing and guerilla tactics but placing electronic boards like this in any American city is bizarre. Especially after the al-Qaeda has just threatened to bring the war to the US again.
They could have come up with something else to use. That is creative out of control or just being lazy. Years ago I sent an ammunition box with a proposal in it to TBS as a gimmick. I would never even think to do that after 2001. Sorry that is just the way it is now.
Posted by: Harry hallman | 02.01.07
It wasn't innovative. It wasn't clever. And it sure as hell wasn't entertaining. It was a bonehead idea. Talk about advertising being invasive!
And I don't think you could ask city officials to read blogs to find out about this stuff before it happens. There's too many blogs and too much information. I'm in the biz and I had no idea about it! It didn't show up on any of my feeds until last night!
Posted by: Spike | 02.01.07