Friday, February 02, 2007

New York barely blinked at ad that panicked Bostonhttp://New York barely blinked at ad that panicked Boston


NEW YORK — 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 several 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 Thursday, with one fetching a bid of $1,250.

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

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