...for marketing purposes, that is.
What happens when you try to commit viral advertising using electronics placed randomly in urban settings? Boston thinks they may be terrorist bombs and closes bridges and universities.
The devices, promoting an adult cartoon, contained blinking lights that bore the image of an extraterrestrial brandishing the middle finger. After officials mistook the devices for something more nefarious, network TV pundits spent hours pondering which America-hating zealot may have planted them.
This comes straight from the department of You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, (Apparently) Unlimited.
But which is scarier: the fact that Boston virtually shut down, or the fact that these devices have been in place for months in several other major urban areas?
Turner said the devices had been been in place for up to three weeks in nine cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco. While Turner apologized profusely for the mix-up we are reminded of the adage that there’s no such thing as bad press.
Somewhere on the eastern seaboard of North America, bomb-sniffers are sitting over their liquid lunch, muttering truculently: “How was I supposed to know? It didn’t look like one of my kids’ video games… Jee-yay-suz. I’ll bet they don’t pay us any overtime, either.”
Keywords: | social commentary | marketing |
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