“Suspicious packages” in Boston turn out to be an advertising campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Governor Deval Patrick calls the whole thing a hoax and is clearly not amused. “It’s not funny,” he says.

Here’s a shot of the supposed “bomb hoax”:

Here are some other things that Boston Police and the FBI may also mistake for a bomb:

Are things really so bad in the United States that you’ll call in anything as a bomb threat? It’s a fucking Lite-Brite sign of a cartoon character giving you the finger.

Though this should give anti-ad-creep activists a nice boost. After all, if you can call in the bomb squad to blow up a Cartoon Network ad, surely the same should apply to other ads as well. “Um, yes, there’s a suspicious package overlooking the Gardiner Expressway… I think that car billboard might explode at any moment!”

Update: Someone who was either involved in creating the ads or else snagged one for himself two weeks ago has detailed pictures on flickr. There’s also a video floating around of two guys doing the install.

In related news, someone’s been arrested. Peter Berdovsky has been charged with one felony charge of placing a hoax device and one charge of disorderly conduct. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is determined to get to the bottom of this:

“We’re not going to let this go without looking at the further roots of how this happened to cause the panic in this city,” Coakley said at a news conference.

Try taking a look at your own police force for a start. Why is it that out of the ten cities in which this campaign was going on (including New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Seattle), Boston’s the only one to lose its collective shit over this? And then to go one step further and arrest an innocent on felony charges because you screwed up? The video posted by some of the people who placed the devices claimed they were inspired by the Graffiti Research Lab; does this mean you’re a terrorist if you’ve got LED throwies? Though they don’t agree with the motives of the ATHF promotion and have done their bit to distance themselves from the Boston incident, the GRL have some choice words about how it’s all going down:

Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still want to be a graffiti artist?