unforum

[C_Brennan]

 "Bomb Threat" turns out to be hoax... discuss.

[djsampson]

Oh I can see the head lines now........ ARG causes mass panic in {insert city}........ Someone better tell the PMs of tCotSA to stop mailing suspicious packages.

[catherwood]

This was in no way an ARG, yet the media will probably lump us in with all guerilla marketing. The bomb scare probably makes this stunt more viral than it would have been had they just scattered obvious advertising. Was there any identification on the things, such as a URL or logo? How useful is marketing that doesn't tell you what the product is?

Yeah, discuss.

[Lovek]

Two plead not guilty to Boston hoax charges

I didn't know they could arrest people for making a city government look stupid.

I'd agree with catherwood that this is not an ARG, but ARGs will probably get lumped in with the other guerrilla marketing. Honestly, though, my guess is Boston will try to bury this story after today.

I can't imagine these guys will be convicted of anything, but you have to put on a show to save face I guess.

[Rolerbe]

I can see, on our current trend, a time when ARG's will have to 'register' with Homeland Security to run.

[RedHatty]

What appears to be the story here is that Cartoon Network hired a third-party street-marketing firm, Interference Inc., to place little black boards festooned with LED lights in the image of a character in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force series near roads, on bridge spans and in subway stations, in order to be noticed by commuters.

Peter Berdvosky, 27, who worked with (not for) the street marketing firm responsible for the campaign called the pieces a "guerilla graffiti light installation," and his personal Web site has pictures and video of himself and a small group of others placing 22 devices around Boston.

Apparently no one at Interference Inc, thought it was appropriate to contact the authorities in the cities these displays were being set up in. No city officials, police or fire departments were sent a media alert of the intent & locations of the devices.

These devices were placed in 10 different cities. None of the cities were aware of the intent. None of the city authorities were contacted.

I personally think this was very poor planning on the part of Interference, Inc. and I won't be surprised if ultimately they are prosecuted for the lack of honest communication.

Will this ultimately hurt ARG activities? I doubt it. If an ARG was so large as to place a large number of items in a city, it woulld #1 probably not be a grass roots, and #2 Would learn from the mistakes made here & notify proper authorities in advance.

Small grass-roots games with dead drops do not tend to place the item so as to draw unwanted attention from "muggles" (those not playing). So, while this is a learning lesson for all involved & for the ARG community as a whole, I seriously doubt that it will have lasting impact with how drops are made in game activities.

Just my $0.02 worth

edit to correct minor spelling error

[Phaedra]

Agreed.

And I think most corporate teams (which are the ones likely to have budgets large enough to pull off attention-getting public stunts) would probably notify authorities of what they were doing.

Or, at least now they will.

[konamouse]

[RedHatty]

We use Muggles in geo-caching, so it's the term I am familiar with regarding those who do not play/do not understand

[Rolerbe]

[Lovek]

Love the video of the two arrested guys holding a press conference today: http://wbztv.com/video/?cid=9&id=28369@wbz.dayport.com

"That is also not a hair question."

[RedHatty]

[Rolerbe]

[Pixiestix]

[Phaedra]