Greatest Press Conference in the History of Media
February 2, 2007
The insanely ridiculous terror scare in Boston on Wednesday lead to the greatest press conference that has ever occurred. Watch above, you can’t help but love it!
Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens walk out of the Charlestown District Court and turn the media into a laughable circus, a feat they usually only accomplish on their own. The only topic open for discussion would be “haircuts in the 70’s”. The press conference goes on for a good amount of time with them refusing to consider any other topic and their lawyer repeatedly supporting this position. Eventually the media gives up and leaves them alone.
They were arrested for putting up throwies around Boston that depicted an advertisement for “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” on Cartoon Network’s late night Adult Swim. Considering the fact that they were hired to do this work and their only intention was marketing and not terror, legally they should be fine. Luckily the judge handling the case seems like a reasonable person. “Judge Paul K. Leary seemed skeptical of the state’s case, telling Grossman that the law requires that people must intend to create a panic to be charged with placing hoax devices. This case, the judge said, seemed to involve two men who relatives say were paid to place unorthodox advertisements throughout the city.” [from the MAKE article]
Clearly the devices they used were innocuous and reasonably common (at least in principle) amongst netizens. I first learned about throwies a year ago in this Amanda Congdon Rocketboom video. Boston was the only city, out of the many that saw the same marketing campaign, that overreacted in this way.
Some of my favorite quotes I’ve heard related to this incident:
- “Boston police protect me from marketing!”
- “Couldn’t these have really been bombs?” response: “So could trash cans, mailboxes, and tubes of toothpaste…”
- “The press accuses of them of not taking it seriously but, in a sense, they’re taking it just as seriously as they ought to.”
- “omg exploding light brights”
In the end, what I find most disturbing is that this was a win for terrorism, even though no terrorists showed up to play…
Thanks to Cliff for finding the embed friendly YouTube video
Tags: adult swim, amanda congdon, aqua teen hunger force, boston, cartoon network, MAKE, marketing, Peter Berdovsky, rocketboom, Sean Stevens, terrorism, throwies, youtube
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This is the first I have seen this. Now I have to make some with my 6-year-old son.
But will it really get me the publicity I seek. Does it work best with government buildings?