Rocket in J. C. Penney TV commercial

Still has the long mane of hair, but now it's all grey.

There's a HUGE difference between a cartoon and showing something that looks to be "real". I still remember how the SBD commercial slandered Aerotech a couple years back. SBC thought it was funny. I think it would be funny if we ran a commercial that showed someone's cell phone exploding, blowing off their head.

"Cell phones blow up all the time"

For joining Tripoli :-)

Here is some funny ones on that Bob:

HAVE YOU EVER MET MARIO!!! : )

Dennis

Heck, his hair has been grey since before I saw him in 1987 (just yesterday bought tickets for his Feb. concert in Atlanta). Besides, he looks better than his father did at his age (which was two years after he died)

Roy nar12605

And creatin' a nuisance.

Mark E. Hamilton NAR #48641-SR ARSA #418

Disturbance, not nuisance.

Nuisance, not disturbance:

(Trivia - The real Officer Obie was a model for several Norman Rockwell paintings and Saturday Evening Post covers.)

Oh well, I should have checked first instead of relying on faulty memory. And the movie was on one of the higher DirecTV recently.

Thanks!

Well, you know, if you can actually *remember* the 60's you weren't really there .

Umm, no, it wasn't (computer generated, that is).

I personally know the individuals who made that video. They were/are members of my Civil Air Patrol squadron. They have talked at great length about how they set it up (multiple rockets on wires, etc.). No CGI was used at all.

It was a $10,000 winner on America's Funniest Home Videos, BTW...

David Erbas-White

What network(s), time(s), & show(s) have you seen this commercial air?

The ad was for a weekend sale. That weekend has come and gone. Hopefully this ad was a one time thing and it will not come back.

The Vonage and AFV videos, while quite similar, were different.

GC

To the best of my knowledge, the ONLY difference is that the Vonage one was edited for brevity. I'm unaware of any other difference, feel free to jump in and clarify if you believe I'm mistaken.

David Erbas-White

In the Vonage commercial wasn't there a fire in the back of the truck and a fire extinguisher used? It's been awhile since I've seen the commercial but that's what I seem to recall. There definately wasn't in the AFV vid.

Your friends were the Farrell's from Murietta, CA?

Google is wonderful, I posted quite a bit about the AFV vid when it aired in '97. Below are some excerpts from my description of it then. There are just too many differences for it to be the same vid. I suspect the commercial folks saw the afv vid, and restaged it to improve the quality.

GC

"I've watched the segment maybe 20 times, frame-by-frame. Yes, it was obviously staged. The 'burn time' is at least seven seconds, and the ejection delay about two seconds. The launch appears stable and the camera follows the exhaust trail straight up a good distance.

The horizontal flight rockets were on guide wires. When the camera pans to the left after the last rocket, a vertical pole can be seen at the right front of the truck, extending to about the height that the second rocket originated from. There was probably a similar pole out of sight to the right. The wire for the third rocket came from the pole at the right and was tied to the tailgate of the truck or something in the bed.

The launch controller that the guy is holding has a bundle of wires coming from it - way more than necessary for a single estes pad, about right for three. The controller(s) are being held in his left hand. After the first launch he's shielding his eyes from the sunlight with his right. He drops his right hand to the controller at just about the time you'd expect him to launch the second.

As he spins around after the second rocket, he catches some of the controller wires with his feet. One of the wires that he snags obviously extends from his feet upward to the left - directly towards where the top of the pole can be seen later.

Other observations on the video:

The point of impact on the truck tailgate is conviently hidden behind a large toolbox sitting on the open tailgate, otherwise the odd motion of the rocket at impact would give away the guide wire. There is something hidden there to absorb the impact; otherwise the rocket would have bounced or shattered, with pieces hitting the back of the truck cab.

The body of the rocket falls to the ground when the ejection charge goes off, which is not surprising. It probably broke the launch lug at impact.

The flight of the second rocket L-to-R across the screen is horizontal and straight. The flight of the third rocket is also straight, angling downward from R-to-L about 30 degrees below horizontal.

If the entrance path of the second rocket is extended to the left, it intersects the top of the pole that can be seen later. The controller wire that is snagged by the actors foot extends upward and left from the ground. Extended off-screen this would intersect the top of the same pole.

If the exit path of the second rocket and the entrance path of the third rocket are extended off-screen to the right, they would intersect at a height and distance that would be about right for a support pole placed there.

I was wrong. There were not three rockets. There were four.

The third rocket flew on its wire *behind* the truck. There is no tracking smoke being generated from the rocket that has presumabably crashed into the back of the truck.

There are wires leading from the launch controller up to the tailgate of the truck, where the fourth rocket is sitting behind the toolbox. As the actor walks towards the truck, he is still holding the launch controller(s) in his right hand. A few steps away you can see a small bit of smoke from behind the toolbox, just about the right amount for an ignitor. Then the 'ejection charge' goes off, and kicks the fourth rocket off of the tailgate."

fire extinguisher used?

recall. There definately

The ones in the video are, the photographer was another rocketeer who has since moved to Alaska...

I'm going to re-phrase my original statement -- there was one lengthy video that was submitted to AFV, and edited for brevity on AFV (and won). The Vonage folks may have re-edited the original video to 'add' the fire -- but I've seen Ed's original video a number of times, and I guess that's what sticks in my mind.

In other words, there was one video made. AFV edited it one way, and Vonage edited it another way.

David Erbas-White

fire extinguisher used?

recall. There definately

Ah now I see. I found the link to Vonage vid here (tho it doesn't show up on their web site):

and you are correct, it is the same video. The AFV video was cut short before the fire and fire extinguisher.

GC