October 17, 2002

8:21 AM

Space Needle Missing from the Seattle Skyline?(subscription) The rumor is someone bought the Space Needle in Seattle and moved it to their house. No! It was an ad for the lottery. Do TV channels need to make it clearer that something is an ad, or do people need to be more careful watching TV?
posted by scudder (28 comments total)

Both. Definitely both.
posted by Fabulon7 at 8:31 AM on October 17, 2002

Having seen these ads, which have decent special effects but are obviously fairly silly, I have to wonder what sort of narcotized, dim vision of reality some people have. Some people actually thought this really happened?

About a decade ago, a local TV comedy show (Almost Live!, for those who remember it) ran a ridiculously cheap-looking recreation of the Space Needle falling over -- the whole think looked like it cost about 47 cents. Yes, you guessed it -- people called in to the TV station in terrible distress, thinking that the Space Needle had fallen over (and of course their first instinct in a terrible event was to call a TV station).

Anyway, scudder, people don't need to be more careful watching TV. People need to practice using even the tiniest amount of their brains for longer than 3/4 of a second.
posted by argybarg at 8:31 AM on October 17, 2002

US$2.99 for a FPP article? no thanks.
posted by DBAPaul at 8:32 AM on October 17, 2002

A lot of people watch TV to *not* use their brains. :)
posted by scudder at 8:39 AM on October 17, 2002

Yes, contemptible, isn't it?
posted by rushmc at 8:45 AM on October 17, 2002

I'm with you DBAPaul... screw that...
posted by FiveFrozenFish at 8:46 AM on October 17, 2002

The aliens! They're invading grover's mills, new jersey!
posted by ph00dz at 8:46 AM on October 17, 2002

US$2.99 for a FPP article? no thanks.

I third that motion. You couldn't find any non-pay sites with corroborating information -- such as a TV station or newspaper article? (Granted, those examples would steam the anti-NewsFilter folks, but at least they'd be free secondary links.)
posted by me3dia at 8:50 AM on October 17, 2002

I guess you can't believe everything you see on the web, either.
posted by TedW at 8:50 AM on October 17, 2002

Having seen these ads, which have decent special effects but are obviously fairly silly, I have to wonder what sort of narcotized, dim vision of reality some people have.

Funny, a few weeks ago I was in the UW bookstore on 4th Ave in Seattle, waiting in line to buy a book, this woman was chatting up the cashier: "Isn't it horrible, they've sold the Space Needle, and now they're going to move it! Is nothing sacred, etc." and the cashier had to gently break it to her that, uh, it was just a commercial. I had to go stand in a corner and suppress my laughter.
posted by Ty Webb at 8:55 AM on October 17, 2002

The post has a link to the lottery's press release. It talks about the ad.
posted by scudder at 8:55 AM on October 17, 2002

I'm reminded of the Pepsi points Harrier jet offer.
posted by Cerebus at 9:14 AM on October 17, 2002

Maybe what they should do is stop reporting the feeble bleatings of every mouth-breather too witless to spot an obvious bit of mirth.
posted by dong_resin at 9:16 AM on October 17, 2002

How about we just stop with the registration required posts? Either:
a: ignore them completely as though they didn't exist
or
b: ALWAYS post a login id/password with said links, or don't post at all
posted by Eyegore at 9:46 AM on October 17, 2002

I still think they should have given him that Harrier, if only for the commercial genius he showed in getting investors for his venture and the guts he displayed by going up against Pepsi demanding his Harrier. Respect.

In answer to the original question "should folks be more attentive when they watch tv?". If you've become so stupid that you can't tell the difference between an ad and a news story, you probably shouldn't watch tv at all.
posted by NekulturnY at 9:57 AM on October 17, 2002

A quick googling of the google news
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=space+needle will show some articles about this. Like this one from the spokesman-review. Eyegore - what you said is right, but rarely is posting to a registration site even needed if one spends 30 seconds with google. ;-)
posted by woil at 9:57 AM on October 17, 2002

People thought it was real?

Oh, natural selection! How you have failed us!
posted by The Michael The at 11:07 AM on October 17, 2002

Hmm. Smells like a self-link to me.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:39 AM on October 17, 2002

Do TV channels need to make it clearer that something is an ad, or do people need to be more careful watching TV?

I'm a little surprised someone didn't mention this earlier, but here goes: Network TV is advertising. Every minute of it.
posted by footballrabi at 11:41 AM on October 17, 2002

Oh, natural selection! How you have failed us!

I think not. We will always need folks to flip burgers, pump gas, and do the nasty things we don't want to...

Obviously enough people buy into "Weekly World News" and it's ilk, and enough others watch the most blatant crap on TV (alien autopsy!!!) to prove that a good chunk of us cannot locate a common reality, fine, let them inhabit their "aliens have shagged my cow, I can't believe they are going to move the space-needle" dimwit reality...

Look, it's just like dealing with the loony on the street corner, or the Jehovahs nitwits... You nod your head, smile, and leave 'em the fuck alone...
posted by jkaczor at 11:47 AM on October 17, 2002

I've heard the Space Needle lottery commercial on the radio. According to the ad they were towing it down the highway. Obviously this is impossible -- it'd never fit under the bridges! So anyone who takes this spot seriously is, well, retarded.
posted by kindall at 11:53 AM on October 17, 2002

I think president George W. Bush has appointed a special task force to investigate the issue.....
posted by fake_plastic_trees at 12:01 PM on October 17, 2002

Don't blame people for believing what they see on TV - sometimes life does imitate art, and TV turns out to have been truer than we thought. For instance, they finally went and built that Matlock Expressway.
posted by soyjoy at 12:15 PM on October 17, 2002

If you've become so stupid that you can't tell the difference between an ad and a news story, you probably shouldn't watch tv at all.

Kind of like these stupid fooled folks.
posted by thomcatspike at 12:21 PM on October 17, 2002

That is, in fact, exactly what I was thinking of when I typed my comment above, thom.
posted by dong_resin at 1:01 PM on October 17, 2002

As P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Did you know spaghetti grows on trees? The BBC said so!
posted by briank at 1:07 PM on October 17, 2002

This movie, a fictional newscast about a nuclear bomb going off in my city, was shown here with the word "FICTION" in the upper right hand corner, a frequent crawl on the bottom, and disclaimers on every commercial break.

The local affiliate's phone lines practically melted with people calling in asking if they should evacuate.

Go figure.
posted by ebarker at 2:43 PM on October 17, 2002

According to the ad they were towing it down the highway. Obviously this is impossible -- it'd never fit under the bridges! So anyone who takes this spot seriously is, well, retarded.

What about floating bridges?

[Pause]

No... you're retarded!

---

My problem with these people is this: even if you believe they would actually sell the Space Needle and move it to Moses Lake on the highway, just because TV said so, perhaps the fact that the "news story" has been repeated during every commercial break for two months might tip you off that, hey, this may not be live coverage of a breaking event.
posted by Hildago at 5:16 PM on October 17, 2002