The Mooninites Have Invaded!
I turned on the TV a bit before 4. (Okay, okay, so I intended to see what Oprah was talking about today.) I found the local stations all abuzz about "suspicious devices" found throughout Boston. By that time, they'd shut down traffic, and taken care of some of them. One report was one looked like a pipe bomb. Another looked like a circuit board with a cartoon character.
It sounded rather like a prank to me, and I speculated college students. More specifically, MIT ones, given the gadgetry.
When it was revealed that the "devices" in question were light-up Mooninites, well, it was just too good. No college students to get in trouble here. No, Turner Broadcasting and their marketers are responsible. It'll be interesting to see if Boston is as harsh on the perpetrators as they were promising to be during their 4:20ish news conference. They were saying something like 5 years of prison time for each device.
You can look at this two ways. You can praise Boston for taking no chances and protecting the public. They were the only city to notice these devices and take action out of a number of major US cities!
Or you can wonder why no one who got a look at these things recognized them. Boston is a college town. College kids are Aqua Teen Hunger Force's major demographic. Maybe the Department of Homeland Security and other officials need to watch more television.
I have to side with the second view. Because reportedly these "devices" have been in several cities for weeks now. So I can't praise Boston's swift action, since it was anything but swift.
Since no one even noticed these things for weeks, then it doesn't seem like it was much of a marketing campaign. Did someone at Turner or their ad agency call in to report the first "suspicious device"? It seems like the only way the publicity worked.
Look for some of these to show up on Ebay in the next few days. But be wary of knockoffs!
