Yesterday morning I chuckled when I saw the news reports about the “bomb scare” in Boston, where some off-their-rocker police person in Boston decided that a neon sign that was part of a viral marketing campaign for an upcoming movie looked like a bomb. “That must be embarassing,” I thought - who could be so stupid as to think what is essentially a Lite Brite would be an explosive? I suppose it’s good to know that Boston authorities are on top of things if some evil terrorists decide to place very small bombs with big flashing bright lights depicting a popular cartoon character on them in publicly visible places. I feel safer already.
But this whole thing became a lot less funny when I heard they were pressing charges against two men who work for the advertising agency that Turner Broadcasting hired to run the marketing campaign. Are they insane? But wait, it gets better. Apparently they’re being charged with a felony for placing a “hoax device that causes panic.” Again, this would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that these two guys are actually being charged with this stuff. The assistant attorney general there apparently refers to the signs as “bomb-like devices” and has gone on record saying “if they had been explosive they could have damaged transportation infrastructure in the city.”
He’s so right. In fact, if the billboards along I-90 were explosive, they could injure passing motorists. Heck, if my TV exploded right now that would really suck. Maybe I should sue Starbucks, because if my cup of coffee here exploded, I could get hurt.
