Memo to marketers: Stay out of Boston! We in Boston clearly cannot handle these newfangled promotional stunts. They make us nervous ... downright edgy. I can barely peck this out on the keyboard, what with the sweaty palms and trembling fingertips. A month ago, the metro area went into a bomb-scare tizzy over a campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Then, last week, Dr Pepper suggested that a $1 million coin was hidden in a Colonial-era burial ground—the resting place of John Hancock (his memorial is shown here), Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, no less—and consumers showed up with shovels. (Thankfully, no patriots—or “brewer patriots,” in Adams’s case—were disturbed.) Call us provincial, but we don’t like cartoon-image generators that may resemble bombs, and we prefer to let our dead rest in peace. Now, there is a progressive town that knows how to mix morbidity and marketing. It’s the home of cheese steak, Rocky Balboa and the 1976 Flyers, and it has plenty of historic graveyards for product tie-ins. —Posted by David Gianatasio

February 26, 2007 | Permalink

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//Thankfully, no patriots—or “brewer patriots,” in Adams’s case—were disturbed.//

Only because as the mass of "treasure hunters" arrived at the graveyard, the gates were still locked.

Good God, who holds a treasure hunt in an historic graveyard?

Posted by: | Feb 26, 2007 8:50:01 AM

Ok, I'm with you on the graveyard. Stay the eff outta our forefathers burial sites.

But the ATHF fiasco. You guys overreacted, end of story.

Posted by: Mosred | Feb 26, 2007 8:54:14 AM

I certainbly didn't overreact. Didn't even know about it until the evening news. (Believe me, most people in Boston didn't even know it was happening at the time.)

A (very) few people called police about circuit boards placed under bridges and subway overpasses.

End of story.

Posted by: Bob | Feb 26, 2007 10:02:52 AM

Are you kidding? Might I point out if anybody showed to deface the buried for cash, it was the nearby residents - in other words the same people who figured a Lite Brite was a threat.

Considering the coin was found in a completely different place, the potential defacers were not only willing to deface property, but were incorrect about the location as well.

At some point, you got to place blame at the people who misinterpret the ads, not the ads themselves, as if some large group is purposely trying ruin their own reputation publicly. But as Robert A. Heinlein said, "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. "

Posted by: David | Mar 2, 2007 5:06:40 PM

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