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Aqua Teen Stunt Costs Turner and Agency $2M
evw writes "The NYTimes reports that the Turner Broadcasting System and the ad agency responsible have reached a $2M settlement with the city of Boston and state and federal agencies that treated the light boards placed around the city as an act of terrorism (as covered earlier on /.) Half of the money is to cover direct costs associated with the response. The other $1M goes to 'goodwill funds' that will be used for response training and public outreach."
I'm sure I won't be the only person to reply and point out that hours of national TV exposure (and subsequent stories, etc) are worth at LEAST $2M. As they say, "no press is bad press.."
..and frankly, in the end, they may not have been liable for any of this anyhow.. since it was mostly just the Boston police/whomever being semi-retarded. But $2M is a small price to pay for the publicity they got, and now the goodwill of paying "more than their fair share" towards homeland security and what the authorities even term as "goodwill funds."
Furthermore, think about how many people (on the fringes of their target demographics) that hadn't heard of ATHF are now keenly aware of the show? With the movie coming up.. yea.. $2M is cheap.
FTFA: "Ms. Coakley said the amount was more than the state would have obtained through litigation. The settlement shields the companies from civil or criminal liability by state and local agencies, Ms. Coakley said."
Too bad ATHF jumped the shark a bit (IMHO) after season 3. And even more bad that the two poor schmucks working for the ad agency are still charged with crimes. They should be set free, and whatever moron phoned in a litebrite as a "bomb" (and the corresponding police moron who agreed with him) should be looking at potential liability. WTF is wrong with our government. Does anybody remember the post-9/11 homeland security debacle with Tom Ridge reccomending people use duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect themselves from terrorists.. and then several people dying by asphyxiating themselves in their own homes? The sad fact is that our society has become so stupid and centered around sensationalist events that terrorists don't even need to make bombs anymore.. just scatter throughout several major cities a few dozen briefcases with litebrites affixed to them, and watch the panic ensue.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
I assume that's legalese for a bribe?
The ones who ordered and paid for the stunt face no charges, but the two guys who put them up as their job do.
What were the ad guys thinking when they made this ad? In a country/world full of fears you just don't place boxes with lights in a city. That is asking for troubles...
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What kind of dumbass assume that glowing lights = bomb?
A real bomb is never designed to make itself presentable/noticable. Only a dickhead terrorist would invite attention to a bomb. Am I the only one who see the logic in this?
(NB. I hail from Australia and as such am not used to paranoia, yet).
Lets start with the mayor, Mayor Menino. He's a fucking retard. A blowhole of political mumbo jumbo. Listen to some of his speeches.
:)
Mayor Menino cant take a joke. This is well established, just ask Opie and Anthony on XM sat radio and cbs radio... Who both lost their jobs as a result of saying that the mayor had died on the air during an April fools show. He wanted them fired, arrested, and their stations broadcasting license revoked.
He's doing the same again. As we all know, he has gone as far as to call the Ignignot and Err "Light Bright" displays as "Hoax bombs". A hoax bomb is not a random item left on various buildings. People often leave things around such as backpacks by accident. Are these hoax bombs?
A hoax bomb is something that looks like a bomb. Perhaps toilet paper rolls painted red with a calculator crudely wired to them. That is a hoax bomb.
These were fucking "Light Brights" with artwork on them. No anonymous phone calls to the police saying "look out, we're the mooninites and we're gonna blow the fuck out of your city... we're everywhere!" That would be a hoax bomb situation.
These are billboards.... posters... fucking light brights.
2million isnt a bad deal, considering the histerical free press they received. 70's hair cuts... are so fucking bad ass.
I'm glad they did this. It makes the Mayor of Boston look like a fucking moron. It makes the press look like fucking morons. It makes Adult Swim look funny and politically wise. This country needs a little fucking with. Adult Swim is evidence of it, that many people not only want to create counter culture experiences, but also seek them out because of the current ass twisted state of our society. We need a good fucking with, for our own good.
They weren't hoax bombs... they were silly light brights... and i want one
Watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Adult Swim. It's funny and full of random nonsense. These guys are my heros. Not only was it a great idea, but when it became a big stinking "hoax bomb" situation in dumb fuck Boston... It became a good opportunity to make fun of the press and that stupid fucking Mayor Menino.
Bravo... "and i'm doing this as hard as i can"
It may have cost them $2 million, but the amount of coverage (read: free advertising) they got for the upcoming ATHF movie is almost immeasurable.
Seems to me they'll need an immeasurable amount of publicity for the movie, since it doesn't seem like one single person in Boston was able to recognize an ATHF character.
Surprised honestly..
I saw one of these "devices" (or one almost exactly like it) almost a year ago to the day on vacation in Seattle. Ya know what I did? I smiled. I smiled because it was a clever way to advertise (and because I knew what it was from). Nevertheless, when I looked at it I still would have realized it wasn't a bomb. It was flipping me off, not ticking.
If we painted all stupid people orange. Then we would know to just stay away from those ones.
It's part of what I call the "24" effect (after the Fox Network program 24).
More and more you see people's attitudes toward terrorism and law enforcement being molded by what they see on 24.
On 24, bombs all have blinking lights that count down.
On 24, Jack Bauer -must- torture the terrorist suspect -now- to stop the terrorist attack that is about to happen. No time for legal procedures, they must be stopped now!
People are starting to really believe that shit...
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The fact is, THERE AREN'T MANY TERRORISTS. Terrorist attacks ARE NOT AND HAVE NEVER BEEN COMMON IN THE US. 9/11 happened because you cannot stop 9/11. Determined and resourceful people are trying to attack us, and, sooner or later, they will succeed. Terrorists could swallow explosives to get past security. They could use heat-seaking missles to hit jets. They could short a notebook battery and start a fire in the lavatory after stealing the fire extinguishers. They could open a cabin hatch in midflight.
We cannot stop terrorism. That's not to say that we shouldn't try to make it is difficult as possible for the terrorists. But we shouldn't become paranoid or live in fear trying to cover every last possibility. That's impossible. It would look like any other IED - some kind of timing or remote detonation device along with explosives. It doesn't really matter what it looks like, though, because it would be HIDDEN. You don't put explosives in plain sight - there's too much of a chance of them being discovered. You hide them in a vehicle, a mailbox, a trash can, or any of the millions of other out-of-sight places in a city. The point is that you don't put it in a public place at all. IT MAKES NO SENSE for terrorists to call attention to their devices with bright flashing lights. Whether or not individuals belieive that they are bombs, having your devices so plainly visible makes them infinitely easier to find and diffuse than if they were hidden.
Think of this from the police perspective: if you knew that bombs had been planted in your city, would you want them to be:
A - Brightly lit and placed in conspicuous locations
B - Nondescript devices (e.g. a cardboard box) hidden in trashcans or mailboxes
Which is easier to detect? Which is easier to find?
Opinion A: These things don't look like bombs.
Well duh. Only proper official bombs look like bombs. Well even that isn't true because that would suggest every explosive device has the same form/look. They don't. Bombs that are just designed to go boom just look like whatever shape suits their purpose best.
A bomb would contain some form of explosive. These make shift readerboard signs didn't have anything on them that looked like they had anything to do with bombs as they had NO INCENDIARIES.
Bombs are designed to go boom, but their shape affects how they go boom. For example, a firecracker is chaped in such a way that it makes a loud noise. A bottle rocket is shaped so that it gets propelled. Other rockets contain a payload of balls of power. If you take the contents of a firecracker and ignite it, you get a flash not a boom sound.
These things looked like reader boards. Near as I can see, they had no timmer circuits on them, no connection to a primer or payload. I couldn't even spy a photoelectric cell, would would have been handy to keep them lit at night only. I.E. not bomb like in the slightest.
Plus the fact that explosives tend to have weight beyond plastic, a few batteries, and a slew of LEDs.
Only a moron would think that this was a bomb.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Put up flashing lights == Charges
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Plant a fake bomb (made to look like a bomb) == No Charges
"In the hospital incident, investigators believe a former hospital employee planted the phony bomb in an office at 185 Harrison Ave. He has been identified but has not been charged, the sources said."
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.b
Same city, same cops, same time period... what gives???
That's how you handle a credible threat of regularly placed terrorist bombs. Without terror.
a) Thomas Menino is a moron
b) Ed Markey is a moron
c) Martha Coakley is a moron
d) Michael Flaherty is a moron
e) All of the above "It's outrageous, reckless and totally irresponsible," Flaherty said. "What a waste of resources." Yes it was waste of resources but what was outrageous and reckless wasn't the ad company it was the overreaction. We understand that morons run the city and their overreaction led to the shutdown of the city. They did not act reasonably post Sep 11 or anything - if they looked at the device up close it ought to have been obvious that it was not a bomb. They knocked the first device of the Sullivan Sq MBTA with a fucking water cannon. They KNEW it wasn't a bomb by this point (that or this is standard explosive ordinance disposal procedure in which case I'm moving from Cambridge tomorrow). They might have communicated this and ended the chaos early. No they later blew up one of the devices to make sure it wasn't a bomb.
What else did we learn? When is a bomb not a bomb? When the IED has LEDs on it. Now if I'm a terrorist, the best way to bomb any city in the U.S. would be to stick one of the ATHF banners in front of my actual bomb.
This 2 million isn't a fine - its a little bit of money so that Turner can accept responsibility and these public officials can save face instead of being decried for being thundering morons.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
That's because Israel has been in a state of war for 60+ years. It's perverse, but the threat of violence has become part of their everyday background noise. The Americans aren't at that point - yet.
Self awareness - try it!
To the writers of ATHF:
Please make an episode where the moonenites plant light-brites on Carl's house and convince him they are bombs.
The moonenites are pretty good and pulling stuff like this. They convinved Shake and Meatwad that some old tires was marijuana, they can convince Carl that some light-brites are bombs. Would be hilarious if they spoofed on this.
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