The uproar about the installation/guerrilla type marketing campaign for a late night animated television show has caused some real fear and anxiety in Boston, United States in the past two days. The lit up boxes had been placed in strategic positions in order to hopefully get some exposure. As well as Boston another 9 or so cities in the States had received the same treatment.

In Boston however, the appearances have created a flurry of anti terror activity. One device has even been ‘detonated’ by the bomb squad. The Boston Mayor lambasted the company, Turner Broadcasting who had instigated the campaign, and said that he was prepared to take any and all legal action against the Broadcaster.

The objects had been placed on bridges and other infrastructure across the city. They have patterns of lighted dots in the shape of boxy characters based on the cartoon show. They are little larger than laptops. The person who attached the lit characters has been apprehended. Bloggers had already been chatting about the appearances and some enterprising designer had helped himself to one and had already listed it on eBay.

So it seems that some part of the public actually did get the joke. Besides this, the panic only happened two weeks after the cartoons had been put up. One would be reluctant to consider the police’s activity as being reassuringly prompt.

What makes an entire city’s metropolitan government freak out about lit up boxes, no bigger than laptops? And now that they have been caught over-reacting, they are incapable of laughing the situation off. They are determined to make an issue over something really harmless. Is this whole war on terror, advocated by their President, the Bush person, making normal people overreact to such an extent? It seems almost pathetic to see adults freak out about something as harmless as a guerrilla campaign promoting a cartoon show.

Are Turner Broadcasting happy with the additional exposure they are receiving? Interesting question. One would normally say so, but in a country so paranoid about terrorism, it might just be too close to call whether this kind of exposure is healthy or not. One thing is for sure, it wasn’t an intentional act of ‘terrorism’. Somebody thought it would be fun. How to get it so wrong!