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On January 31, 2007, a battery-powered device about a foot square, with dangling wires and glittering lights, was found in a main interaction of Boston. Vast resources were soon assembled in the city to investigate the suspicious threat. "At the height of the alert," a police officer noted, "authorities mobilized emergency crews, federal agents, bomb squads, hundreds of police and the US Coast Guard...roads, bridges, and even part of the Charles River were closed" (Jacoby, 2007, p. E9). Manpower, time, and money were devoted to protecting the city from a suspected terrorist threat that turned out to be nothing more than a marketing ploy.
The perceived dangerous devise displayed a boxy cartoon character giving an obscene hand gesture to promote the late-night cartoon, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a surreal series on Turner Broadcasting System's Cartoon Network about "a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a wad of meat" (Koth, 2007, p. A. 2). The same light boards had also been placed for two to three weeks in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign implemented by Turner's third-party marketing firm, Interference (Koth, 2007).
Following immense media coverage and finger pointing, a deal was announced in which Turner Broadcasting and Interference would pay $1 million to reimburse state, federal and local law enforcement agencies for the cost of responding to the "threat." In addition, Turner would allocate $1 million in goodwill funds for security and community programs (Ridder, 2007). The individuals who positioned the light boards around the city were originally charged with placing a hoax device resulting in panic and disorderly conduct. Under the agreement, Turner, Interference, and anyone representing the companies, would not face any charges (CNN, 2007).
This article examines the recent Aqua Teen Hunger Force fiasco that generated a serious scare in Boston. Guerilla marketing is first defined and then described through successful campaigns that helped organizations find new ways to access prospects, interact with audiences, impact a spot market, create buzz, and build strong relationships. Turner's campaign is then contrasted with the examples of success to pinpoint where the strategy may have fallen through. Finally, this paper suggests there is a line between creative and reckless strategies....