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Entertainment & Media
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The Day a Cartoon Alien Shut Down Boston: Revisiting the $2M 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' Bomb Scare
In 2007, Boston mistook LED ads for the show 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' as bombs, sparking a city-wide panic. The response, involving numerous agencies, cost the city and Turner Broadcasting a combined $2 million, all for a guerrilla marketing campaign gone wrong.
On January 31, 2007, the city of Boston ground to a halt. Reports flooded in of suspicious electronic devices planted under bridges and in prominent public spaces. Fearing the worst in a post-9/11 world, the city responded with overwhelming force. Bomb squads, police, fire departments, the Coast Guard, and even the Department of Homeland Security were mobilized. Major highways were shut down, the Charles River was closed to boat traffic, and a palpable sense of fear gripped the metropolis. The cause of this multi-million dollar panic? A cartoon alien giving the middle finger.
A Marketing Stunt Goes Wrong
The mysterious devices were, in fact, part of a guerrilla marketing campaign for the upcoming Adult Swim movie, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The simple LED boards, known as Mooninites, depicted the characters Ignignokt and Err, two recurring antagonists from the surreal animated series. Created by marketing agency Interference, Inc., these devices had been placed in ten other major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, over the preceding weeks without a single incident. Boston, however, was different.
A concerned citizen spotted a device on a support pillar for Interstate 93 and alerted the authorities. The discovery triggered a chain reaction of emergency protocols. As more devices were found, the scale of the response escalated dramatically. By the end of the day, Boston was in a full-blown security crisis over what was essentially a light-up advertisement.
The Outrage and the Aftermath
Once the devices were identified as harmless promotions, fear quickly turned to anger. Public officials were not amused. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino expressed his fury at a press conference, calling the campaign an act of corporate greed.
"It is outrageous, in a post-9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme. The safety of our citizens is paramount. I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for this stunt."
The two men hired to place the devices, Peter "Berf" Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, were arrested and charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct. Their subsequent press conference became an infamous piece of internet culture, as the duo refused to answer questions about the case, speaking only about 1970s hairstyles. The absurdity of the situation was on full display.
The $2 Million Price Tag
The financial fallout was significant. Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, ultimately agreed to pay $2 million to resolve the situation. One million went to the Boston Police Department to cover the costs of the emergency response, and another million was designated as a goodwill fund for homeland security preparedness in the city. The incident also led to the resignation of Cartoon Network's General Manager, Jim Samples, who took responsibility for the debacle.
A Bizarre Legacy
Today, the 2007 Boston Mooninite Panic is remembered as a bizarre cultural touchstone. It's often cited as a prime example of 'security theater' and a media-fueled overreaction. While the threat was non-existent, the fear was real, and the cost was substantial. It serves as a strange, almost comical, cautionary tale about the unpredictable collision of edgy marketing, public anxiety, and the 24-hour news cycle. A day when a city was brought to its knees by a Lite-Brite cartoon.