One week ago, a nationwide guerrilla marketing campaign to promote the cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force “blew up” in Turner Broadcasting’s face.

The company positioned electronic light boards, portraying a character “giving the finger,” in 10 major cities. And some had a battery and wires attached to them. The devices were in place for about two weeks before Boston officials found nine of them around the city and suburbs, and mistook them for bombs. (Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley told reporters that they “had a very sinister appearance.”) State, local, and federal authorities shut down highways, bridges, and river traffic, and U.S. Northern Command monitored the situation from its Colorado headquarters. Officials went on to find more than three dozen of the devices.

And it gets worse. One of the two men paid to distribute them (and now criminally charged in the matter) videotaped a bomb squad taking away one of them. Yet he didn’t inform the officers that it was innocuous.

Has this one campaign done irreparable damage to marketing’s reputation? Consider the following comments, as reported on cnn.com:

• Boston Mayor Thomas Menino: “I just think this is outrageous, what they’ve done … It’s all about corporate greed.”
• Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis: “It’s a foolish prank on the part of Turner Broadcasting.”
• Boston-area Representative Ed Markey: “Whoever thought this up needs to find another job. … Forcing first responders to spend 12 hours chasing down trinkets instead of terrorists is marketing run amok. It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt.”

There are plenty of other issues to ponder:

• Turner has apologized and agreed to cover costs and restitution, but does it matter?
• Was the generated publicity worth it?
• Will the uproar make others think twice before executing guerrilla campaigns?
• Why didn’t other cities become suspicious? (Is Boston less hip, or more safe?)

Meanwhile, I’m trying to understand why there’s a cartoon about a talking milkshake, a box of fries, and a meatball.