Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick

We've said it before, but it's worth reiterating: be careful with preparing promotional stunts.

Sometimes they have can a habit of backfiring.Witness a newspaper promotion from Tom Cruise's new film Mission Impossible III in which the Los Angeles Times newspaper rack was fitted with a digital musical device designed to play the "Mission: Impossible" theme song when the door was opened. In some cases, the red plastic boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and dropped onto the stack of newspapers inside, alarming customers, noted the Associated Press.

Times officials said the devices were placed in 4,500 randomly selected
news boxes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in a venture with Paramount
Pictures designed to turn the "everyday news rack experience" into an
"extraordinary mission."

It was just that, at least for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
arson squad, which destroyed the box."This was the least intended outcome. We
weren't expecting anything like this," said John O'Loughlin, the Times' senior
vice president for planning.

Quite.