Police Commissioner Ray Kelly discussed the scourge that are LED devices with Aqua Teen Hunger Force characters on them yesterday. Kelly said, "In hindsight, [Interference Marketing] should have thought a little more about this, certainly in a post-9/11 world. They had wires hanging out of some of them. It's reasonable to look a little askance at these things." Also: "We get about 6,000 suspicious-package calls a year in New York, but we got no calls for this." Hmm, we wonder if adult swim has demographic info on ATHF viewers - are there more in NYC than Boston?
Interference, the NYC marketing firm whose plans to infiltrate the consciousness of urban cities all over the country were seriously fouled up when Boston freaked out, has finally issued an apology on its website. Sure, it's sorry for the Boston incident, but it's not sorry for its other stuff (like hiring "leaners" - people to go to bars and chat up their cellphone client's product). The NY Times, in an article about guerilla marketing tactics, found this quote from Interference CEO Sam Ewen about ever being arrested, "Luckily I have avoided arrest, mainly by dropping fictitious names of police officers from other precincts in town."
At any rate, while New York did not (over) react to the Ingninokt LEDs, we should be ashamed that we don't know why the city smells like mercaptan or maple syrup! We need answers.
Photograph of a mooninite LED device being removed from an Atlanta building leased by the Atlanta Police Department (really!) by John Bazemore/AP
