A screaming headline on Drudge. Boston bomb squads scrambling around the city. Blogs and message boards exploding with speculation. Panic and uncertainty in the air.

And Frylock, Shake and Meatwad couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

There’s an Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie on the way, and Turner Broadcasting marketers asked Interference, Inc. to design a guerrilla stunt that would get them a lot of press. It worked.

(The Interference site is down as of this posting, but in this 2001 interview, Interference CEO Sam Ewen says, “The neat thing about guerrilla marketing is that the media can buy into it and the campaign becomes the story.”)

Interference came up with magnetic lights reminiscent of a higher-tech Lite-Brite. They were designed to render a Mooninite giving the finger. They were also mistaken for pipe bombs and terrorist devices.

(Speaking of mistaken identities, this story reveals that initial reports said the Mooninite looked like Spongebob Squarepants who, to the best of my knowledge, never gave anyone the finger. But who knows: Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes is seen peeing on everything in sight, so I suppose anything’s possible.)

Kevin Glennon (who should have been hired by Turner in Boston to handle this sort of thing, by the way) alerts us to this link, which takes you to this page with images of the devices being installed, and also includes a video clip of the Mooninites finding their new homes in Boston.

As Ignignokt (he’s the larger green one) says, “The innocent shall suffer. Big time.” On this day, at least, a Mooninite pronouncement came true. Big time.

Check out the BostonChannel.com story, especially the message board comments that almost unanimously damn Turner for the stunt. Turner apologized, of course, for what Reuters described as “the biggest city-wide security alert since the September 11, 2001, attacks.”

Says the Boston Mayor, “I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents.” Just after dinner last night, the first arrest had been made.

To quote Err, the smaller pink Mooninite: “Uh, oh, look what someone did. You’re in trouble.”

The cynic in me makes me wonder: Since these mini-billboards have been up for weeks in nearly a dozen cities, and probably getting little or no attention at all, did someone purposely call the authorities in an attempt to raise the profile of the campaign? Wouldn’t surprise me at all.

It’s going to be fascinating to watch all this unfold in the days and weeks ahead.

Takeaway for marketers: Pushing the envelope? Beware of paper cuts! Or if you’re dealing with municipal property, clue in the appropriate agencies so that when someone mistakes your Mooninite flipping the bird for a terrorist device, the cop fielding the call knows to laugh, too.

FEBRUARY 1 UPDATE #1: This video of two arrested “ad prank suspects” refusing to feed the media beast is fascinating viewing. Kudos to whoever the reporter was who came up with an actual hair question that was sort of relevant.

FEBRUARY 1 UPDATE #2: This CafePress store is pretty funny.

FEBRUARY 2 UPDATE: Keith Olbermann had a pretty reasoned take on it all. Here’s a transcript.

FEBRUARY 5 UPDATE: The price of panic: $2 million. Details here.

FEBRUARY 7 UPDATE: The aforementioned Kevin Glennon, in whose backyard this whole fiasco took place, explains what really happened in Boston over here.

According to Reuters, Google commands 47.4 percent of the U.S. Web search market while Yahoo! claims 28.5 percent.

Next month, Yahoo! will be launching Panama, a new “search marketing ranking model.” Here’s a press release about it.

Shares of Yahoo! rose seven percent yesterday on the news, but Panama is about attracting new advertisers and squeezing more dollars out of existing advertisers, not expanding Yahoo!’s overall share of the still-growing search universe — which, according to that Reuters link above, has grown 30 percent since December 2005.

Takeaway for marketers: Will Panama be a good thing? Test it. Is it delivering you the ROI you want? Then it’s a good thing.

The first four episodes of 24 were released on DVD virtually simultaneously with their airing. Also on the DVD: the first 12 minutes of tonight’s episode five, which (of course) have been posted to YouTube. Here’s part one and here’s part two.

It would be pretty buzzworthy (and, in my mind, a very smart marketing move) if the producers of 24 posted the first 12 minutes of each new episode online shortly after the previous episode finished airing — for the entire season. Not that 24 needs any more hype or promotion, but it would probably further solidify the existing loyalty so many have for this amazing show.

Takeaway for marketers: One of the fundamental rules of showbiz: leave ’em wanting more. Teasers like this do exactly that. Are you leaving ’em wanting more in your own business?

Once again, Marketing Sherpa has assembled their annual freebee of real-life tips and wisdom from marketers. It’s 60 pages this year and available here, where you can also download wisdom from as far back as 2003.

Takeaway for marketers: Print it. Read it. It’ll be time well spent.

Rachael Ray has TV shows, books, magazine covers and more. Oprah answers her calls. Spam uses her name. She also has her detractors, many of whom have congregated over here.

“Rachael Ray is annoying for many reasons but here are a few: she is repetitive, she talks with her hands way too much, she giggles incessantly, she puts olive oil and chicken stock in everything, she wears really ugly clothing, she talks out of one side of her mouth like she’s had a stroke, she looks like ‘The Joker’ when she smiles, and she can’t stop talking about her family.”

It’s not just a Web site … it’s a community.

Takeaway for marketers: You think you can control the message? The entire message? Think again.