Given the publicity and fallout (no pun intended) of the Boston advertisement for a Cartoon Network/Adult Swim cartoon, which was thought to be an incendiary device, I find it amazing, if not amusing, that we can find terror in things that are harmless, spending nearly a million dollars in just a few hours to prove it as such (the initial figure was $500,000 in funds spent on shutting down public roads, calling the bomb squad, etc, etc, etc; once the perpetrators were found to be in the employ of a big bucks television network, the figure went up over 50% over night! Go figure!).

Yet, we fail to spend money on the things that are truly terrible: gangs, poverty, global warming, health care, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Here's my take on the now defused (pardon the pun) situation: If the ads were put up with the proper licenses, zoning permits, etc, etc, etc, then the city has only itself to blame for not asking for a description of the ads. If that turns out to be the case, then I'm sure that all cities' advertising/display permit/zoning laws will eventually include greater restrictions and even ask for layouts, diagrams, pix, etc, in the future. As an aside, California wants to institute a "no-spanking" rule, so if Big Brother can find time to prosecute all would-be parental disciplinarians, we can certainly find time to prevent such ads from causing mass hysteria, with apologies to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast (can you imagine this scenario in California? A five year old calls the cops and reports that his parents have spanked him; the cops have no choice but to pull down the boy's pants - - in front of his humuliated parents, of course - - to see if there are any - - how shall I put it - - lasting impressions? The perfectly normal parents say that the boy was doing something that any reasonable adult would accept as being very, very, "wrong" and deserving of a harsh punishment (IMHO, too many people spare the rod; I truly believe that if gang members were treated more severely as youngsters, that they would have towed the line and never crossed it. Anyway, lacking hard evidence, the cops are forced to leave, but, thoughtfully, give the folks a lecture on the proper use of corporal punishment, and the kid a warning about not using 911 for something that he knows was wrong. So, the kid called 911 and the result was a waste of taxpayer money. And, of course, as soon as the cops leave, the parents beat the boy senseless for embarrassing them in front of their neighbors! Thank goodness we'll have such laws on the books! Hooray for politicians with time on their hands, and taxpayer money to spend!).

But, I digress! ;)

If the ads were placed without having received any such permissions, then the Steve (Apple Inc) Jobs look-alike along with the rastafarian version of alleged comic Bobcat Goldthwait (re: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,249780,00.html; photo below), and, especially, those who approved the idea at Turner Television, Adult Swim (who publicly apologized for the incident during one of their openning "bumps", so there's more than ample proof of complicity and responsibility for the city's attorneys), etc, deserve to be fined and/or put away for graffiti, vandalism, obscenity (the toon was flipping the finger), public endangerment, assault (not everyone thinks the finger is funny), wasting taxpayer money, etc, etc, etc.

It doesn't matter whether the ad was meant to cause such a ruckus (apparently, the same ad appeared in other major cities, without any such ado). It was perceived to be a threat - - if I were a terrorist, would I make a bomb look like one? No. I would hide it in some shape or form that could be displayed in plain sight, and hope that nobody notices. Unless, of course, I'm a marketer/advertiser for Turner Networks! Then, it's perfectly innocent, of course!

Follow-up: Jim Samples, Exec VP of Turner Networks, and Gen Mgr of subsidiary Cartoon Network, has resigned (after 13 years there, a little harsh, IMHO), and TN has agreed to pay Boston $2,000,000. No word on the two who were arrested for designing the ad.