Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Attack of the Mooninites!

I once interviewed a homeland security consulant who claimed that ordinary citizens armed with wi-fi laptops, smart cellphones, and the like would be far more effective at responding to terrorist attacks than any governmental organization. Tonight I have seen the proof of that argument.

The top story on Boston.com and other local news sites and TV stations as I write this is a bomb scare that happened in Boston this morning. It seems that suspicious devices were spotted on bridges, overpasses, in subway stations and other public places. The devices -- described ominously as being "composed of electronic circuit boards with LED lights attached" -- were shaped like little glowing figures who seemed angry. The bomb squad was called in, and they detonated at least one of the devices and removed the others. Traffic was snarled for hours. What were the devices?

The answer to that burning question was available earlier today on blogs and social networking sites like Flickr, thanks to the sharp eyes of pop-culture-savvy young Bostonians. Todd Vanderlin, for example, spotted the devices and recognized right away what they were: a guerrilla marketing campaign for the Adult Swim TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." To be specific, the devices are a sophisticated advertisement -- Vanderlin even figured out who orchestrated the campaign -- depicting Mooninites.

UPDATE: Thanks, Boing Boing, for posting about this entry and updating us on the story. I learned from one of Boing Boing's readers, for example, about this video, created by the guerrilla marketers in question:

Posted by Joshua Glenn at 03:21 PM

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