Guerilla Marketing Gone Bad In Boston

urner Broadcasting apologized "for a marketing campaign that
sparked Boston's biggest security scare since the September 11,
2001, attacks -- closing bridges, shutting major roads and putting
hundreds of police on alert." The "outdoor marketing campaign"
promoting an Adult Swim cartoon "had been in place for two to three
weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle,
Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia." Boston police
feared that the magnetic lightboards of cartoon characters might be
bombs. According to PR Week, Turner Broadcasting has "hired outside
PR and legal counsel" to recover from its "marketing stunt gone
bad." Turner "declined to name the agency" it hired for PR
assistance, and said it had not yet decided whether to continue to
work with Interference, the agency that developed the lightboard
campaign. Associated Press reports that Turner has "agreed to pay
$2 million" to local Boston and Massachusetts state agencies.

SOURCE: Reuters, January 31, 2007