Friday, February 02, 2007
NON-HOAX IN BEANTOWN
I am torn when I think of Boston, a city that I once (sort of) called home, a place that now wrestles with its new reputation as the most un-hip burg in America thanks to its freak-out in response to a Cartoon Network marketing ploy (why didn't San Antonio and Seattle lose their shit? Because enough residents in those places watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force to know what a Mooninite is and to recognize their use in a marketing campaign). Yes, it wasn't the smartest or most security-aware thing to put odd-looking devices in locations key to transportation (though I'm not sure where else one would put a promotion for a TV show), but how can the media call this a "hoax?" Who was trying to fool who? There was no intent, and while the initial response of the Boston police may have been appropriate, the lockdown of the city was just giving into hysteria. If you can threaten two guerilla marketers with jailtime for unintentionally fomenting hysteria, what about the news networks? They've long gone past the 'objective journalism' standard and are now 24-hour panic alarms, and well they know it. (Notice how pissy they get when the Interference Inc. guys don't play by the grim, solemn rules of the crisis mode news conference.)
I am torn when I think of Boston, a city that I once (sort of) called home, a place that now wrestles with its new reputation as the most un-hip burg in America thanks to its freak-out in response to a Cartoon Network marketing ploy (why didn't San Antonio and Seattle lose their shit? Because enough residents in those places watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force to know what a Mooninite is and to recognize their use in a marketing campaign). Yes, it wasn't the smartest or most security-aware thing to put odd-looking devices in locations key to transportation (though I'm not sure where else one would put a promotion for a TV show), but how can the media call this a "hoax?" Who was trying to fool who? There was no intent, and while the initial response of the Boston police may have been appropriate, the lockdown of the city was just giving into hysteria. If you can threaten two guerilla marketers with jailtime for unintentionally fomenting hysteria, what about the news networks? They've long gone past the 'objective journalism' standard and are now 24-hour panic alarms, and well they know it. (Notice how pissy they get when the Interference Inc. guys don't play by the grim, solemn rules of the crisis mode news conference.)
# posted by toner_low @ 11:28 PM 
