What Are We? Goofy?

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So Turner Broadcasting is apologizing for a poorly thought out "guerilla advertising" campaign that involved placing a number of "devices" in odd places in major cities across the nation. One would think that advertisers might be more than a little sensitive to the overnight appearances of a number of objects with batteries and wires in public venues - but evidently marketing geniuses don't think like regular people do. But then we saw what these things looked like:

And do you know what we immediately thought of?

This brings us to a conflict of thoughts. On one hand, these are simply "lite-brite" boards wired to show you a side order of french fries giving you the finger - and lord only knows we need more deep fried potatoes flipping us the bird.

On the other hand, it's kind of amazing that two guys with a pole and some magnets could run around the city sticking things to structures and no one says a word about it for 3 weeks. Amazing in a kind of scary way that we've become so complacent again in the wake of a 5 year war with islamic terrorists and an absence of major incidents on US soil.

And then, you have this from the Superintendent:

• Cline asked Turner Broadcasting System Inc. on Thursday to reimburse the city for funds spent removing 20 of the gadgets from train platforms and storefronts, mostly on the North Side, after a guerrilla-marketing campaign for the company's adult cartoon show went awry.
• Cline said he thought the city should be reimbursed for the pay of officers who spent several hours searching for the devices.

Searching for the devices? Come on now Phil:

• Interference Inc., a New York marketing company that staged the campaign, provided Chicago police with the signs' 35 locations around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said. At that point, officers fanned out to retrieve the devices.

Police didn't "find" anything. They were provided with the exact locations and they still didn't find 10 devices. Once they were determined to have been an advertisement, civilians could have been sent out to get these things. We saw a news report that one lady had her husband take it off of their building by reaching out a window. How is this even a police matter?

What should be a police matter is whether officers and CTA track inspectors are trained enough to recognize when something doesn't belong on or near a structure. Something like a shaped charge maybe? We already know what the answer is, but it makes one wonder about how much money is wasted on a daily basis when something as low tech as a lite-brite advertising board can shut down a major city like Boston and provoke such a half hearted response from Chicago. Because guess who else is watching, every single day?