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NYC on Alert for Motor Vehicle-Based “Noise Terrorism”

4:06 PM EST on February 26, 2007

Speaking of automobile advertiser shamelessness, check out the marketing campaign that, reportedly, rolled through the Lower East Side last night at around 3:00 a.m. courtesy of Microsoft and Toyota:

According to reports from residents in Lower Manhattan, a California-tagged, Zune-branded SUV rolled through Ludlow Street during the "wee hours of February 25th," but rather than handing out flyers to the night-owls still roaming, the vehicle decided to test out its "competition grade stereo system" in a densely populated neighborhood. Described as an "egregious display of noise terrorism," the 3:00 am blasting from a Toyota FJ Cruiser didn't garner the positive attention that the firm was apparently hoping for.

And if that's not an obnoxious enough deployment of motor vehicle-based digital audio technology for you, there's the HornTones FX550, "the first mobile audio device that allows you to customize the sound of your vehicle's horn."

The chorus of this song would make for a great "HornTone."



Jason Varone
Jason Varone battles the streets everyday during a 9 mile commute on his bicycle from downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side. In addition to his efforts on Streetsblog, he is an artist making work related to the environment and technology. Examples of his work can be found at www.varonearts.org.

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