Comments on: "It does not pollute the skies."

"It does not pollute the skies."

JDHarper — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:00:45 -0800

Advertising in the clouds using repurposed snow machines.

People have been using the sky for advertising for quite some time. People first advertised via skywriting in 1922, and first projected words onto clouds in 1892 [PDF].

By: DU

DU — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:05:47 -0800

The machines can pop one Flogo out every 15 seconds, flooding the air with foamy peace signs or whatever shape a client desires. ...generally last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour... "It does not pollute the skies," /me weeps for humanity

By: cashman

cashman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:22:12 -0800

It's fitting that the first thing the video shows is a Mickey Mouse head floating into the sky.

By: sandraregina

sandraregina — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:41:38 -0800

Okay. Take the skies from me.

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:42:06 -0800

They talk about a proprietary soap mixture, but do not call their process or machine 'patented'. I wonder if because of that, we will start seeing these everywhere by all sorts of companies.

By: twistedonion

twistedonion — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:47:19 -0800

Ah for fuck sake. A precious memory from childhood was playing "see what you see in the clouds" with my parents. Now we'll be sitting with our kids as they shout - "look mommy, McDonalds in the Sky. Lets go to McDonalds." Bastards.

By: bink

bink — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:00:57 -0800

Can't there be one thing left that doesn't have a damn logo on it?

By: batou_

batou_ — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:00:58 -0800

Will it ever stop?

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:28:23 -0800

Am I the only person who actually thinks this is kind of neat?

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:32:49 -0800

Looks like, yep.

By: bookwo3107

bookwo3107 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:49:55 -0800

These seem too small to do much for advertising. I can maybe see these being used instead of, I don't know, confetti at a parade, but not much more then that...

By: jstef

jstef — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:05:50 -0800

A snow maker that makes advertisements float in the air for minutes? Well, it's time to get your soy-based carbon-neutral hybrid panties all up in a bunch, Metafilter!

By: Takeyourtime

Takeyourtime — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:22:54 -0800

The last thing I EVER EVER want to see when I look up at the clouds is a giant McDonald's sign. This business will never take off. Everyone I know would oppose this idea.

By: 8 Bit

8 Bit — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:27:58 -0800

"They will fly for miles," Guerra said. "They are durable so they last a while." is it ok for me to get my union suit in a bunch over advertising's never ending attempt to make inroads into all aspects of my life? is it all right if i hope to look into the sky and see a cloud in the shape of a pig eating a monkey, and not a caveman from an insurance commercial? is it too much to hope that every inch of the earth will not be commercialized? is that somehow beyond the pale? I just read the short story Ray, Bohemian, which is in the latest, or a recent New Yorker. It is about identity and viral marketing. I think what I have a problem with, in part, is not advertising, or marketing, per se, it may be that these things are a necessary evil for our economy. but, in part, it is a question a question of whether these things make their intention known to me. if it is not "unethical" (or an appeal to something if not ethics) for a commercial product to be communicated to me in a way that is unknown to me, then I think that the future pushes towards greater stages of unreality. Maybe we are already in a post-reality landscape and this doesn't bother you. I can't say. However, a life where there are no open spaces, no commons, no noncommercial environments is one that will certainly degrade the "human experience" beyond the declined state we already find ourselves. So yeah, a temporary cloud that floats through the sky and hovers above me which is a pigtailed girl eating a hamburger is gross and my soy-panties are bunched way the hell up.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:31:56 -0800

The last thing I EVER EVER want to see when I look up at the clouds is a giant McDonald's sign. You'd really rather look up and see an anvil falling towards you, or someone emptying a bucket full of (untied) used condoms at you?

By: regicide is good for you

regicide is good for you — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:03:03 -0800

What the video doesn't show is me standing next to the damn thing with a hose.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:45:54 -0800

i'm not so into the advertising aspect, but it seems that some of you may not understand how fun i am.

By: Zinger

Zinger — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:06:20 -0800

Neat technology though. Can someone explain the state of helium supplies to me though? I understood from something I read years ago that we only had a limited supply of the stuff. How is it I still see it being used by tankful for kids balloons and now this stuff?

By: snofoam

snofoam — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:11:10 -0800

zinger, i think there was a post about it here. most helium is used in laboratories. the US government started a strategic reserve in the 60s to make sure we had it for space and defense research, but it was privatized and now prices have been going up. it's a byproduct of natural gas production, i believe, or at least that's where we get most of it.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:12:21 -0800

oh. it was askme.

By: kozad

kozad — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:14:54 -0800

I'll tell you what you young'uns missed: skywriting. Now that was fun to watch!

By: krikkit261

krikkit261 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:55:20 -0800

LEELA: Didn't you have ads in the twentieth century? FRY: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio... and in magazines... and movies, and at ballgames, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written in the sky. But not in dreams, no sirree.

By: rooftop secrets

rooftop secrets — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:14:58 -0800

The machines can poop one Flogo out every 15 seconds, flooding the air with foamy peace signs or whatever shape a client desires. Fixed that for them.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:29:56 -0800

They aren't playing fair anymore. How the hell am I supposed to change that?!

By: Tube

Tube — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:14:22 -0800

Am I the only person who actually thinks this is kind of neat? OMG! I can't believe I didn't think of this before, this has HUGE potential for fake UFOs! Imagine a helium soap-foam two feet across and 30 feet long, sort of like what Mythbusters did with soap foam and natural gas. Imagine this at dusk, with the setting sun acting to obliquely light the thing, it might glow orange like jet contrails sometimes do. Imagine your helium soap-foam floating over the baseball game, with thousands of witnesses. Imagine this over Lake Washington during Seafair, with 50 UFO videos uploaded to YouTube the next day! Imagine this at night, lit from below with red and green lasers! Peter Davenport is going to get a bunch of phone calls because of this....

By: dasheekeejones

dasheekeejones — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:44:17 -0800

Like it couldn't just be used for the common good---like creating boob clouds or something.