• Los Angeles Times (free registration required), Monday, May 1, 2006 11 AM

Let's put this into the category of Unintended Consequences.  In the end, the Los Angeles Times was not too happy about it, but Paramount Pictures presumably saw the whole thing as a boon.  Here's what happened, as reported by the Times itself.  In a co-promotional effort, the paper and the studio had arranged to have 4,500 newspaper boxes in and around the city wired so that they played the theme from “Mission:Impossible” when their doors were opened.  (“M:I: III” debuts on Friday, May 5.)  However, the bright-red digital device that activated the music were clearly visible protruding from behind the boxes, as were their wires.  Naturally, this alarmed many commuters, several of whom alerted the police.  Federal officials called in the city's bomb squad, which destroyed one of the boxes in West Los Angeles. "The devices weren't supposed to be seen by the public," says John O'Loughlin, The Times' senior vice president for planning. "This was the least intended outcome. We weren't expecting anything like this."  No word yet on who will pay for the replacement of the newspaper box blown apart in this promotion-gone-terribly-wrong.

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