20 Declassified Facts About The Mission: Impossible Series
19. Marketing For M:I3 Was Often Mistaken For Bombs
To promote Mission: Impossible 3, Paramount worked out a cross-promotion with the Los Angeles Times: it put digital audio players in 4,500 newspaper vending boxes. The players played the theme song when the door was opened... when they stayed in place. Unfortunately, quite a few players came loose and fell on top of the stack of newspapers, where they looked like bombs. Customers looking to get their morning paper thought they were under terrorist attack.
Police bomb squads responded accordingly, shutting down a veteran's hospital and blowing up the newspaper boxes. It's not known just how many were destroyed, but it's amusing to think that the marketing for the movie might have led to more explosions than were actually shown on screen.