Unintended consequences

This has been all over the news but I can't help but comment.

I work in marketing and I'm pretty peeved at these dopes who have given the profession another black eye. How could they not think through the possible consequences of such a stunt?

Turner Promotion Mistaken for Terrorist Threat
Boston Shuts Down Roads to Assess Danger of Ad Campaign

By Andrew Hampp
Published: January 31, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The alien-like Mooninites of Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" invaded the country rather quietly earlier this earlier this month until one touched down at a Boston intersection yesterday morning.

Shutdown
The Turner network launched a 10-city outdoor marketing campaign for its film "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres" involving small circuit boxes labeled with the characters scattered across the streets ... The boxes had been in place for two to three weeks, but Boston officials perceived them to be potential bomb threats, temporarily shutting the city's Interstate 93, a key inbound roadway, a bridge connecting Boston and Cambridge, and a portion of the Charles River.

The campaign was conducted by Turner in collaboration with New York marketing firm Interference.

The boxes depict a "a middle-finger-waving moon man" (CNN). Boston's mayor and police are not amused and it sounds like there will be fines and jail time. Two people have already been arrested.

Interference is a "A nationwide guerilla and alternative marketing agency from idiation through tactile implementation and staffing." If you pull up their Web site, you get a blank screen.