It was supposed to be Gorilla Suit Day, and instead it turned into Guerrilla Lawsuit Day!
The spin machine is working. There’s lots of tough talk, and an arrest has been made in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force “guerrilla” advertising campaign.
Artist arrested for planting marketing figures
By Maria Cramer and Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff
The man who sent city and State Police rushing to defuse what they believed were explosive devices around the Boston region was arrested tonight.
Attorney General Martha Coakley scheduled a 9 p.m. press conference to announce the arrrest of Peter Berdvosky, an Arlington artist.
What stopped the city was the way the situation was handled. Here’s audio from WBZ radio. You’ll hear some of a news report, the beginning of Paul Sullivan’s talk show, and part of the opening statement at that 9 p.m. news conference by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. Lots of talk about getting tough, along with the usual compliments about how well all of the various agencies cooperated, and what a great job everybody is doing, blah, blah, blah…
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JAN07/WBZBostonTerror.mp3]The Boston Globe has posted this editorial, and I’m glad it includes the following comment:
Homeland Security experts will need to review the response of local law enforcement. Public safety personnel may have overreacted; local bloggers apparently identified the guerrilla advertising campaign early on.
The fact that the promotional campaign was orchestrated by an advertising agency on behalf of The Cartoon Network isn’t incidental or irrelevant, but these mysterious objects could have been a stunt by college kids. Does this mean that ANYthing out of the ordinary, no matter what it is, can result in an emergency response of such magnitude? If so, then we’ve lost the war on terrorism.
Wow! Is this entry really from the beginning of last year? The guys who were arrested ended up doing some sort of community service.
My reference to National Gorilla Suit Day is now moot, because the widow of cartoonist Don Martin wanted it ended. So I deleted the entry at that link.
I’ve never seen Spongebob, actually. One of those things I avoided, so I wouldn’t get hooked on watching it.
Thinking of Homeland Security, have you noticed how Squidward of “Spongebob Squarepants” resembles Michael Chertoff?
Say, I remember Bob Larson at Accu-Weather! Nice guy! Seriously, can’t we just all get along? This morning I saw another all-time low when the “Today” show (which I hardly ever turn on anymore) built an entire segment on a Youtube tape of a bride freaking out over a bad hairdo and hacking her hair off. I think it was staged (looked like a wig), plus the girls (“bridesmaids”) were all pretty drunk and screaming and whining and acting so immature and horrific I had absolutely no sympathy if it WAS true!
Ah, yes, love hearing that old BAH-stan accent.