Mission Impossible Promo Goes Too Far

File this under: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

Marketing execs from Paramount and the LA Times no doubt congratulated themselves on the innovative ad campaign for Mission:Impossible 3. The LA Times agreed to add little music boxes to the newspaper dispensers scattered around the city. When the door opened, the music box would play the theme from the movie. 'Cause that's not annoying.

Anyway, it turns out that you arouse a lot of suspicion when red boxes with wires show up in news stands throughout a major metropolis. Concerned Angelinos called the cops, who arrived at one news stand and detonated it.

Eventually, everyone figured out what's going on, and now the police have to explain it to the folks calling in.

A co-worker of mine suggests that maybe Paramount knew that the news stands would get police attention, and eagerly anticipated the extra press. If so, way to prey on the fears of a large city.

Here's the link.