Bad publicity for whom? Certainly not Adult Swim's demographic. I can almost guarantee that 90% of [AS] viewers found the entire Boston reaction absolutely hilarious and ridiculous.

Silly lite-brites.

You know, I love Boston and am happy to live here for the most part, but dear god, this hole thing makes me cringe. To be fair, yes, the kids should have probably gotten permits to put these things up so that they were free and clear of any legal complications. But... who the fuck expects that cartoon themed lite-brites are going to bloww up our fair city? Really? This is a total emabarassment.

First of all, these weren't exactly "circuit boards", alright? They were fucking light-up signs. As in, a 2-dimensional sign with a battery in the back to light it it up.

Second of all, you mention these things being located at "key sites" in Boston. Have you ever been to Sullivan Station? What in hell could that be a "key site" for? Blowing up a bunch of 3-eyed fish swimming around in the nasty Mystic River? This is not exactly what I would call a cunning choice of locations in which to plant a bomb, regardless of your intentions. Unless you really wanted a bunch of those three eyed fish, I guess.

That's basically faulting a municipal infraction of the most minute degree to a state-wide hysterical panic. The ends don't even come close to justifying the means here.

Whatever gets douches to stop posing for profile pictures with their douche-zilla guitars gets the slow 80's movie handclap ovation from me.

What exactly can you blow up with four D batteries? You can probably cause more damage by throwing the fucking batteries.

Not too fast. Loses meaning.

Sullivan Station is right underneath the major highway leading in and out of Boston. I'd say that's pretty major.

Whatever it is, it won't be whiney tools who pose with a silly little sign on his lips. The fact that its too small to read earns you 100 futility points.

Getting somewhat back on topic...
I've lived in Massachusetts my entire life and I've never been a fan of the city of Boston. Too high of a percentage of it's residents can't go 2 sentences without mentioning the damn Red Sox or how much they hate New York.
I'm actually not at all surprised by the over-reaction. Much of the northeast seems really up-tight.

Having been born 5 minutes outside of Boston, and living within 45 minutes or less from Boston pretty much my entire life, as well as being a huge ATHF fan, I can say without a trace of doubt that this has to be the most retarded shit ever.

I have to laugh (so i dont cry) that we live in a day and age where an Atari-Looking Character on a Lite-Brite needs to be blasted with water cannons and then blown up. I feel like a bomb squad just laid primary charges to detonate my Glow Worm, and apparently, my Teddy Ruxpin has taken hostages and is demanding "everyone sing along".

In the day of the rose colored alert levels and paranoia being the hot new scent, We live in so much fear it's disgusting. If this ad campaign was design to instill fear as Boston officials claim, then it was wrong. I still wouldnt stand up against it, because terrorism is the new buzz word, and pointing out how jumpy America has become would be a public service. (IMHO)

But I don't believe this was meant to instill fear and panic. I think it was just a creative marketing campaign that should have been a huge succes, and ended up a huge load in Bostons pants instead.

We fear our own shadow in this country, and a high profile position was lost in company that has turned around the biggest surprise in 20 years of TV. Who would have thought Cartoon Network would become such a powerful Pop-Culture force? Well, maybe that's over now. CN lost the boss, maybe now things will change for the worst. Because Boston is scared shitless of a kids toy with a crudely drawn cartoon character. God Bless America.

What no one seems to understand is that Boston is the most provincial city in the United States.

If it doesn't come from inside Route 128, it's probably foreign.

I grew up in small Southern towns and never knew what small-town thinking really was until I moved to Boston.

OF COURSE they don't recognize an ATHF image; it's some strange cultural reference that has nothing to do with the local customs. Now, if someone had put up blinking lights images of Duane Glasscock, everyone would have laughed.

(If you're from Boston and think that's funny, it proves the point. No one else knows what I'm talking about).

+1. I agree wholeheartedly.

This is all happening in the country where people stock up on bottled water and plastic sheeting when a fallout scare occurs. As if 2 mil poly will prevent radiation.

All I can picture is all the South Park residents, mobbed in front of the mayors office yelling "Rabble! Rabble rabble!"

These were up for 2 weeks it wasn't like they were there for a couple hours.....

Totally overblown and totally inept city government pretending they care and wanting publicity for themselves with elections coming up.

Jim Samples will be missed I only wish he'd take those two morons who did Tom Goes To The Mayor with him.....

I was born and raised in Boston and have, like all of us, borne witness to all manner of things that made me proud and any number of other things that make me very sad about my native soil and those that live there. It is not so long ago that the good folks who run the city decided that they did not want to segregate the public schools and so federally administered forced busing based on race began and the true colors of so many of my fellow white as snow and of primarily Irish ancestry brothers and sisters came out in the ugliest fashions imaginable. The African-American collective community was only slightly less shameful in the way they handled it all, too. Disgraceful all around.
Lets not forget that before there was a "Ratings Board" for films, most movies (and books sometimes) would need to be reviewed by the Boston Archdiocese to be certain it was not too challenging to catholic thinking. I'm not kidding. "Banned in Boston" was either a shameful blemish or a marketing opportunity, depending. And lets not forget the seemingly very large number of sexual abuse cases brought against members of the clergy there in recent years, cases that had been covered up for decades for no better reason than to protect the careers of abusers. This is the Boston that Mayor Menino was born and raised in, too, and it has formed him and the rest of his native born and raised staff and judicial system (most, I presume, as the City requires that you live there to work for them). There is plenty of dysfunction at work here.
At the same time, most Bostonians are exceptionally well educated and informed. Local politics are viewed by many as a place for the less talented. Corruption is not what it used to be; having an Irish name (or Italian, in the right neighborhoods) is no longer a gaurantee of anything, as it used to be. There are more colleges and universities in the greater Boston area than any (similar) municipal region in the country, maybe the world. Thomas Paine lived and wrote there. Some other great revolutionaries made it their home, too. Aerosmith, Boston, J. Giels Band, Scruufy The Cat, The Blackjacks, The Dead Kennedys, tea parties of a different sort, those wonderful idiots, the '04 Red Sox, play there in old Fenway. Its a pretty great place.
Is Boston full of boobs and stupid politicos? You bet. Are the drivers there insanely aggressive? Absolutely. Is Tommy Menino a bit of a moron? Yeah, he makes you miss the last City Boss, Kevin White, very much indeed (who though not as pure as the aforementioned driven snow, was smart and funny).
Don't blame Bostonians, blame the Boston political machine and the Suffolk County judicial system. But at the same time you do that, remember that Boston feels guilty for fluffing the pillows of those nice people who flew those planes into the World Trade towers a few years ago (those flight originated at Logan). There are many in Beantown that have no sense of humor about anything to do with "terrorist" incidents, and that is not likely to change any time soon.

Exactly, it's a very odd form of survivor's guilt for a lot of the people running things in Boston. "Not on our watch" is the creed to live by when it comes to all things Homeland Security, and to some degree I can understand the way that came about.
Yes the whole situation is absolutely ridiculous, and made even more so by the inability of people to back off of their original positions regarding the intentions of where the signs were placed, but I think that the amount of media attention given to the situation has only made it more laughable. If the situation was largely igored by the media, then odds are the two artists would have been quietly charged with something minor and released.

As has been said elsewhere, there's no need for them to have been able to recognize an Aqua Teen Hunger Force character (I can't) to recognize that the signs weren't bombs.

The thing that I find most interesting is the thought, the mere notion, that a city like Boston would be the TARGET of a terrorist attack galls me. How self-important to you have to feel to even think that is a possibility. Everybody likes to think their town is important, but Boston isn't even in the top ten as far as Major Metropolises in the United States. (They're actually number 11) The fact that the planes responsible for the 9/11 attack departed Boston FOR OTHER CITIES tells me that the threat to that city is minimal. If this was New York, or L.A. or Chicago responding to this in the belief it was a terror threat, I could understand.

Also, this add was done in nine other Major cities. One of them was (I beleive) New York, and there was no incident. But hey... The people of Boston will probably tell you its because New York has grown lax in their post 9/11 security...