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boston.com, politicians and the bomb "hoax"

  • Jan. 31st, 2007 at 4:53 PM
highway
crs
Dear people in the public eye:

Please stop calling the guerilla ad campaign a "hoax." The term "hoax" implies an intent to deceive, as if today's hysterical response to the "bomb threat" was the desired result.

Thank you,

-Chris

PS - remember this? Surely there's still some room in the world for a little public art... *sigh*

Comments

( 21 comments — Leave a comment )
chriswicke
Jan. 31st, 2007 10:00 pm (UTC)
I hadn't seen the Mario prank. That's awesome! What a great idea. Too bad people are so paranoid in "This day and age"

sigh
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awfief
Jan. 31st, 2007 10:36 pm (UTC)
I'm going to make a guess and say that Turner Broadcasting got the requisite permit for attaching things to bridges and stuff -- they're billboards, fer chrissakes. I'm guessing that pretty damn soon, the Boston Police Department is going to be pretty embarassed for not checking something like, "is there something that was recently put there that was permitted?" (permitted = has a permit for)
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crs
Jan. 31st, 2007 10:38 pm (UTC)
Hope so.

But Turner's statement doesn't really make any such claim; I kind of think that if they could make that claim, they would have by now...
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csbermack
Jan. 31st, 2007 10:57 pm (UTC)
The statement implies that they had no permits.
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awfief
Feb. 1st, 2007 12:59 am (UTC)
It doesn't say one way or another. It's usually not a good idea to call a police force a bunch of idiots. I remain skeptical, and hope to be proven wrong, but I'd put money (maybe $10, not much money) on Turner getting permits. They're just too damn large to not have corporate bureaucracy.
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crs
Jan. 31st, 2007 10:38 pm (UTC)
(Turner's Statement)
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jadia
Jan. 31st, 2007 10:49 pm (UTC)
Someone totally needs to do a public art project titled, "Ce n'est pas un bomb".

Maybe just poster large signs like that, or stickers like that on random things. ;)
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hammercock
Jan. 31st, 2007 11:16 pm (UTC)
Now that would actually be funny!
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intuition_ist
Feb. 1st, 2007 01:46 am (UTC)
hm, only if they had enough education to get what it was spoofing. that's the sad part.
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csbermack
Jan. 31st, 2007 11:00 pm (UTC)
I think that, up until it became clear that it was actually just an ad campaign, it was reasonable to call it a hoax. Certainly that information came out pretty quick, but public figures are not brilliant about quickly adjusting the rhetoric. And even if they did, reporters don't timestamp when they got their quotes, and a new story could easily be quoting someone from 2pm.

Until then, I assume the meme was to emphasize HOAX so that nobody thought that any of the devices were actually bombs. I'm down with that.

If they're still calling it a hoax tomorrow, then maybe I'll agree with your complaint here.
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mjperson
Feb. 1st, 2007 04:05 pm (UTC)
Staggering Overreaction
I'd say it's moved way beyond overreaction actually, and is now in the realm of a desperate attempt to cover embarassment.

This morning Menino was giving out quotes saying he was going to demand full prosecution of the culprits (those poor fools arrested for putting up the signs) and the parent companies (Turner).

He further said (according to the Metro) that the penalty for putting up "this type of hoax" is two to five years for every device found.

That's just crazy. (Since it seems clear to everyone that this was never a hoax.)
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csbermack
Feb. 1st, 2007 04:09 pm (UTC)
Re: Staggering Overreaction
He's saying that? All right, that's just dumb.

Oh fer cryin' out loud... they should just say "Oops. But now we know that our emergency response is awesome!" even though this incident doesn't actually show that.
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intuition_ist
Feb. 1st, 2007 01:45 am (UTC)
so, somebody set them up the bomb?

i can't believe nobody said that yet
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shaggy_man
Feb. 1st, 2007 01:23 pm (UTC)
Now they're apparently threatening to charge the guys who posted the things with "placing a hoax device in a way that results in panic," a felony.

So, basically, the ridiculousness of the official response has only increased.
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navrins
Feb. 1st, 2007 02:31 pm (UTC)
Said guys have been arrested, in fact.
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awfief
Feb. 1st, 2007 03:13 pm (UTC)
seems to me that the guys who posted the things did, in fact, place a hoax device in a way that results in panic.

That may not have been the intent. But they did that.
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crs
Feb. 1st, 2007 03:15 pm (UTC)
They placed a device that results in a panic.

  hoax
    n : something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage [syn: {fraud}, {fraudulence}, {dupery}, {humbug}, {put-on}]

This was no hoax. Period.
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twe
Feb. 1st, 2007 05:58 pm (UTC)
Yeah, referring to it as a "hoax" is ridiculous. "False alarm" I will accept. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erino/375916067/
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shaggy_man
Feb. 1st, 2007 06:48 pm (UTC)
Why would you put LEDs all over a bomb anyway? Assuming you're not making a movie, that is.
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plymouth
Feb. 1st, 2007 08:27 pm (UTC)
Yeah, no kidding. Because if you really wanted to blow up a bridge the best way to do it is to light the bomb up as brightly as you can to ensure it will be found and diffused before it goes off. *shakes head*
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yoav_y
Feb. 4th, 2007 03:42 am (UTC)
From down here it looks like you've got a collision of stupid idiots (I really really hate guerrila marketing), colliding with anal idiots (the police has overreacted, and I'm sure they know it but are to embarassed to admit it).

Turner wins millions of dollars of free advertising (well, they chose to pay $1m as an apology).

The people are the ones who are gonna lose here. It's gonna cost a lot of money to prosecute these guys. And the only thing they're gonna be able to make stick is probably some charges of 'vandalism' or 'littering'.

ha ha!!
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( 21 comments — Leave a comment )