I really feel for the guerrilla gang at Interference. Their promotion for Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network has literally blown up in their face.

You might wonder how an agency or a client could even consider placing suspicious looking devices all over big cities like Boston, New York and Washington in the post 9/11 world. As an agency that does lots of "guerrilla marketing", it isn't too hard for me to reconstruct the process.

The client, Cartoon Network in this case, says we really want to get a lot of attention for our new show, noting how edgy the content is and how edgy the promotion should be.

The agency, excited to be working with a client who is really willing to take risks and "push the envelope", throws out a bunch of ideas including one that is truly outrageous, never imaging in a million years that the client would say 'yes.'

But the client, probably a young staffer, is anxious to create a huge "buzz" and get as much "free" publicity as they can, says "go for it, what's the worst that could happen?"

Everyone is swept up in the excitement of the idea, knowing without a doubt that this stunt won't go unnoticed and the idea does not go through all the internal scrutiny and legal review process that more traditional ad campaigns typically face.

A few weeks later the stunt is on the street and "kaboom", a freelance street team operative is arrested, a major corporation is facing investigation from the Massachusetts Attorney General and a guerrilla agency is suddenly in the news.

The insensitivity of this stunt is simply astonishing. We all live in this world together and seeking attention by potentially scaring the wits out of someone is an act of self indulgent stupidity.

Marketers need to accept responsibility for their actions and avoid "we win, somebody loses" scenarios.

I'm coming down harder on the client because they asked for it, they approved it and they funded it.

As for Interference, they are going to take in on the chin for this one. I'm all for risk taking but come on folks, grow up!

There have got to be ways of getting attention without calling out the bomb squad.

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Drew Neisser is CEO of Renegade Marketing Group in New York.