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NYC ignores cartoon villain, Beantown shuts down

BY MICHAEL AMON | Newsday Staff Writer

February 2, 2007

New York to Boston: Get over it.

The Big Apple's neighbor to the north was brought to a halt Wednesday when some harmless blinking signs advertising a cartoon were mistaken for bombs.

In New York? Fuhgeddaboudit. The city's 911 operators logged no calls -- not a single one -- when the identical devices depicting in lights a character from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," were planted around Manhattan and Brooklyn about two weeks ago.

"It takes a little more than that to shock us," said Randi Martinez, 25, a bartender from Manhattan who heard about the response in Boston.

In fact, 38 of the 40 signs hung in New York disappeared, presumably swiped by cultish fans of the show that airs on Cartoon Network, said Shirley Powell, a spokeswoman for Turner Broadcasting Co., the network's parent company. A few signs stolen in some of the 10 cities nationwide that were part of the promotion already had popped up on eBay yesterday, fetching bids of up to $1,250 each.

Could it be that New Yorkers, living in a city where ads pop up everywhere from subways to sidewalks, weren't concerned because they are inured to marketing? Or are Bostonians just a bit jumpier?

"People in Boston are a little more uptight than New Yorkers," said Hunter Foster, 37, the Manhattan actor who lived in Beantown several years ago and now appears as Leo Bloom in "The Producers". "It feels like a small town, and you don't see as much there. In New York, you see something weird every day."

The ads originated in New York, the brainchild of Interference Inc., a Manhattan-based company known for its edgy guerrilla marketing campaigns for everything from cigarettes to stock brokers.

This time, Interference was pushing the bizarre cartoon that follows the lives and high jinks of three roommates who are talking versions of a pack of French fries, a milk shake and a ball of meat. At least 40 of the signs were placed in 10 cities, depicting one of the show's more popular minor characters, a box-shaped, beer-swilling alien known for extending his middle finger.

Turner issued an apology for the marketing campaign after being condemned by Boston officials, who mistook the battery- and solar-powered signs for bombs and shut down much of the city on Wednesday.

Subways, bridges and one of the city's main arteries, Interstate 93, were shut until authorities in Boston deemed the devices safe. Two young men hired by Interference to plant the signs were arrested and charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct.

That response drew snickers from some of New York's young adults, many of them fans of the show.

"Some older people don't get the humor," said Yves Wilson, 23, a television production assistant from Manhattan who watches "Aqua Teen" with his friends. "Just the fact that the authorities had no clue was hilarious."

Not everyone in New York thought so. The New York Police Department announced it is investigating -- but will do so without shutting down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.