So funny they forgot to laugh
Monday, February 5, 2007
OFFICIALS in Boston are in no mood to laugh off the city’s latest terror scare.
No matter that the magnetic electronic devices found on bridges, along highways and in a hospital turned out to be advertisements for a late-night cartoon show. The devices were small, had blinking lights and looked as if they could be bombs.
Some fans of the cartoon show think the municipal reaction — traffic stopped, bridges closed, the Charles River blocked — was funny. To use an old phrase, they find the mayor and the police tragically unhip — unable to distinguish a “viral marketing” campaign from a terror attack.
The two young men who were arrested for their involvement in placing the devices laughed during their arraignment Thursday. What a lark!
Well, the cops and the mayor may indeed be unhip, but it cannot be denied that the people who thought up, bought and carried out this advertising campaign are clueless. It seems never to have occurred to them that most of the world might not share their zany sense of humor and might actually feel threatened by unrecognizable electronic devices blinking at them from places the devices should not have been.
It also did not occur to them that, in the city from which some of the 9/11 hijackers set out on their mission of murder and suicide, it might be a good idea to talk to the authorities before sticking their mystery toys up in public places.
Of course, the little blinking signs turned out to be harmless, but the police had no way of knowing that. They did what they had to do in the circumstances — assume the worst.
If the signs had been the work of young pranksters, it would be tempting to let them off the hook after a good scare.
But this was not a prank. It was an attempt to make money by a company — Turner Broadcasting — that already has a lot of money. The venture was purely commercial and it frightened the people of Boston and cost them money no city can afford to throw away.
The company — not the young men who placed the signs — should pay for its error in judgment.
That should get a smile from Boston officials.