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- On the morning of January 31, 2007, the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards depicting the Mooninites, characters from the Adult Swim animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), leading to a massive panic. Placed throughout Boston, Massachusetts, and the surrounding cities of Cambridge and Somerville by Peter "Zebbler" Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, these devices were part of a nationwide guerrilla marketing advertising campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The massive panic led to controversy and criticism from U.S. media sources, including The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Fox News, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, CNN, and The Boston Herald. Some ridiculed the city's response to the devices – including the arrests of the two men hired to place the placards around the area – as disproportionate and indicative of a generation gap between city officials and the younger residents of Boston, at whom the ads were targeted. Several sources noted that the hundreds of officers in the Boston police department or city emergency planning office on scene were unable to identify the figure depicted for several hours until a young staffer at Mayor Thomas Menino's office saw the media coverage and recognized the figures. After the devices were removed, the Boston Police Department stated in its defense that the ad devices shared some similarities with improvised explosive devices, with them also discovering an identifiable power source, a circuit board with exposed wiring, and electrical tape. Investigators were not mollified by the discovery that the devices were not explosive in nature, stating they still intended to determine "if this event was a hoax or something else entirely". Although city prosecutors eventually concluded there was no ill intent involved in the placing of the ads, the city continues to refer to the event as a "bomb hoax" (implying intent) rather than a "bomb scare". Reflecting years later, various academics and media sources have characterized the phenomenon as a form of social panic. Gregory Bergman wrote in his 2008 book BizzWords that the devices were basically a self-made form of the children's toy Lite-Brite. Bruce Schneier wrote in his 2009 book Schneier on Security that Boston officials were "ridiculed" for their overreaction to the incident. In his 2009 book Secret Agents, historian and communication professor Jeremy Packer discussed a cultural phenomenon called the "panic discourse" and described the incident as a "spectacular instance of this panic". In a 2012 article, The Boston Phoenix called the incident the "Great Mooninite Panic of 2007". A 2013 publication by WGBH News wrote that the majority of Boston youth thought that the arrests of two men who placed devices were not justified. (en)
- Les alertes à la bombe de Boston sont des alertes ayant eu lieu le mercredi 31 janvier 2007, lorsque le Boston Police Department et le (en) ont identifié par erreur de petits appareils publicitaires lumineux, affichant deux personnages de la série d'animation Aqua Teen Hunger Force, comme étant des engins explosifs improvisés. Placés à travers toute la ville de Boston, et dans les villes alentour de Cambridge et Somerville, ces appareils faisaient partie d'une guérilla marketing de campagne publicitaire pour le film d'animation inspiré de la série Aqua Teen Hunger Force, série initialement diffusée dans le programme de nuit Adult Swim sur la chaîne Cartoon Network. Ces incidents ont provoqué une polémique et des critiques de la part de plusieurs médias, dont The Boston Globe, le Los Angeles Times, Fox News, The San Francisco Chronicle, le New York Times, CNN et The Boston Herald, certains ridiculisant la réaction disproportionnée de la ville, significative selon eux d'un (en) entre ses représentants et les jeunes habitants de Boston à qui ces publicités étaient destinées. Un groupe de policiers a expliqué que ces appareils partageaient « quelques caractéristiques avec les engins explosifs improvisés », notamment une source d'énergie identifiable, des circuits imprimés visibles et un ruban isolant électrique. Des enquêteurs ont qualifié cet incident de « canular ou quelque chose de similaire ». (fr)
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- On the morning of January 31, 2007, the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards depicting the Mooninites, characters from the Adult Swim animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), leading to a massive panic. Placed throughout Boston, Massachusetts, and the surrounding cities of Cambridge and Somerville by Peter "Zebbler" Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, these devices were part of a nationwide guerrilla marketing advertising campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. (en)
- Les alertes à la bombe de Boston sont des alertes ayant eu lieu le mercredi 31 janvier 2007, lorsque le Boston Police Department et le (en) ont identifié par erreur de petits appareils publicitaires lumineux, affichant deux personnages de la série d'animation Aqua Teen Hunger Force, comme étant des engins explosifs improvisés. Placés à travers toute la ville de Boston, et dans les villes alentour de Cambridge et Somerville, ces appareils faisaient partie d'une guérilla marketing de campagne publicitaire pour le film d'animation inspiré de la série Aqua Teen Hunger Force, série initialement diffusée dans le programme de nuit Adult Swim sur la chaîne Cartoon Network. (fr)
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