• MSNBC/Reuters, Friday, February 2, 2007 12:15 PM

Despite widespread censure, the arrests of two guerilla marketing specialists and threats of further legal action by the city of Boston, the promotional stunt for the Turner Broadcasting's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" may have achieved its purpose: Stir up big buzz for little money.

"They achieved far more than they probably ever set out to with this group of, say, 21- to 35-year-olds that they were trying to reach," says Tracy Ryan, an advertising professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Ryan, like other experts, criticized the decision to place small, animated billboards around cities, given the post 9/11 political environment. But industry watchers also said that the audience for the cartoon is often hard to reach through more conventional methods.

Andrew Benett, chief strategy officer of Euro RSCG Worldwide, calls the stunt "kind of the apex" of guerrilla campaigns that went awry: "But it's very safe to say, while not done on purpose, it may have been far more successful than planned."

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