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Well, advertising people can breathe easy. The two artists behind the Boston Moominite Terror attacks are free, with all charges dropped. If you already know what I’m talking about, I apologize for dragging you through this story again. If you don’t, even bigger apologies.

In late January, Boston police were alerted to the presence of several strange devices in various points around the city. They were black display boxes with LEDS illuminated on their surface, depicting a character from the Cartoon Networks AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE. Specifically a Moominite, who are blocky pixelated creatures resembling some Colecovision-type alien. The police, fearing terrorism, detonated one of the devices. Once it was proven to not be a bomb, they proceded to round up the other devices. Then they went after the people responsible.

These people proved to be Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, two local artists hired by Cartoon Network to create a guerrilla marketing campaign for the upcoming AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE movie. The Boston Authorities accused them of perpetrating a terrorist hoax, which is a crime. After a particularly surreal press conference in which the two artists refused to answer any questions about the incident, instead turning the conversation to observations about seventies hairstyles, they were sentenced to community service. Cartoon Network, that is CNN Networks, that is Time Warner, paid for the cost of removing the devices and another $1 million on top of that as a goodwill gesture.

On Friday the artists were released from their obligation after doing 100 hours of service between them, painting a mural at a local hospital.

I will now assign blame for this whole sorry mess.

First of all, the artists are blameless. They picked up $300 bucks apiece to devise this stunt, they’re young artists and they don’t know any better.

Time Warner, on the other hand, might have looked into the possibility of informing the local authorities that there would be electronic devices left around the city. Not because it would be the right thing to do, but because it would have saved them money in the long run. Still, I can’t really blame the ol’ WB.

Because deep down, when all is said and done, the Boston Police were incredibly, wildly stupid. What the hell were they thinking? These devices went up in 5 or 6 cities nationally and somehow those cities managed to make a determination that Al Quaeda wasn’t going to put cartoon characters on their bombs. Word of advice - you know who puts cartoon characters on bombs? Gotham City supervillains.

And once it was obvious a misunderstanding had occurred, the Boston Police incarcerated a couple of art schmoes in an effort to save face. They have to this day not backed down. They insist that they were right to close all the major thoroughfares and tie up their finest for several hours, because they were protecting the city from terrorism. Terrorism that has so far been held in check a burger, shake and fries.

By the way, the worst thing about this whole sad publicity stunt is the movie tanked. Came out last month. D’ya see it? How did you like it? Oh? Well maybe your friend did. You know, the guy down the dorm hall hopped up on goofballs. Then again, even if he did see it, he won’t remember. That’s how they generate repeat business.

Lessons learned - artists hate to apply for permits. Don’t make feature-length movies out of 15 minute cartoons. And above all, Boston can’t handle publicity stunts. Never, ever, attempt stealth advertising in Boston. Do not advertise a product without naming the product. There are lives in the balance.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 3:47 pm and is filed under General, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.