A Fake Bomb is a Bad Public Service Announcement
February 28, 2007
Recently there have been several false alarms involving “suspect devices”, most prominently the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Guerrilla Marketing Boston Bomb Scare [also see BoingBoing's blog roundup of the fiasco], and the most recent Boston Freakout over a traffic counter attached to a post. So it is rather surprising to see a Public Service Initiative reminding people to be vigilant in the form of fake bombs being placed around R-Mall in Mumbai, India. What would have happened if these were placed in an American mall? Probably complete panic, an evacuation, and a bomb squad’s controlled demolition of the suspect devices. This seemingly innocuous reminder to be vigilant would obviously be a perfect way to disguise an actual explosive device. What the hell was the R-mall security staff thinking? According to Wikipedia, the literacy rate in the city of Mumbai is 86%, but I don’t know what percentage of the population there can read English. Adding translation in Hindi would have been smart. Making two dimensional posters of the same idea would have been a better idea.
Link [via BoingBoing]
