Frickin' Ridiculous

So, those guys from Cartoon Network who were promoting the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie are being prosecuted in Boston for "[creating] panic by placing 'bomblike' electronic light boards displaying a cartoon character with an upraised middle finger throughout Boston." This is stupid. The problem here is not that these two men created a panic, but rather, that the Boston Police Department created a panic by overreacting and failing to recognize a piece of electronics that was obviously not a bomb. Seriously. It's a pixelized alien sporting a middle-finger. This promotion was conducted in seven other major cities without incident.

The city of Boston needs to just accept that they made a mistake; a mistake that was exacerbated, perhaps, by a generational gap. If DAs prosecuted every instance of guerrilla marketing, there'd be no one left on the streets.

While I like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, I'm not really an avid fan. I wasn't aware of the "moon men" characters, but when I saw the alleged "hoax bombs" it was obvious what they were. While it wasn't obvious that it was part of a marketing ploy, it was obvious that it was some kind of grass-roots art; potential vandalism at worst. If these men are prosecuted, the freedom of speech consequences could be pretty dire.