Did anyone happen to see a new SBC (Southern Bell Corporation) commercial. I saw it at about 6:20am 02-04-2004. It features a dad cruising the Internet and buying an Aerotech Initiator. Then cuts to a father son scene where they launch the Initiator from an Estes Porta Pad. Then next scene is where the Imitator performs a ballistic recovery through the roof of "Mom's car." At that point "Mom's car" explodes in a massive deflagration when dad says, "Opps, we broke mom's car." And this is suppose to advertise high speed DSL? We need action from the national level expressing our displeasure about how our hobby is depicted. Not to mention the number of rules and laws they depicted being broken.
Launching too big a rock from too small a launch pad. Launching too close to streets. I'll doubt that they had a fire permit. I'll doubt they notified the FAA of their intent to launch a rocket in excess of 454 grams. Not knowing the motor they flew on, and if they flew in California, did they have a California Pyrotechnician Class III - Rocketry on hand.
In case you national folks don't know what that is, here's a link telling about it.
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also made this table showing the limits for launching rockets.
CA requires the Pyro Op thing for "Experimental High Power Rockets".
It's a "Large Model Rocket" and not an "Experimental High Power Rocket" and therefore there is no CA requirement for a Pyro Op. There IS a requirement for permits from the local AHJ as well as the usual FAA notification for a "Large Model Rocket".
Screaming and yelling (or writing letters/e-mails) does very little good. They can ignore or throw in the trash. You need a plan that will actually make them notice. I seriously doubt that you can find enough people to switch to Verizon so that they will notice. Perhaps you can find a local TV news consumer reporter to do a story on how dangerous this commercial is. Of course, they will probably be able to tell you that it's a commercial by a COMEDIAN, and that it is supposed to be silly, funny, non-realistic, and MAKE YOU REMEMBER THE PRODUCT AND TALK ABOUT IT.
Mission accomplished.
Boycott Homer Simpson. He burned down a church with a rocket!
I think people are making more out of this than they should be. This is typical fluff used in advertising.
BTW, it's SBC Communications. The company is made up of the former Southwestern Bell, Ameritech, Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell. They changed to the SBC brand name in 1999.
Mario Perdue NAR #22012 Sr. L2 for email drop the planet
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"X-ray-Delta-One, this is Mission Control, two-one-five-six, transmission concluded."
Hi. I'm new out here and new to rocketry. I just wanted to make a comment about the SBC commercial.
It LOOKS harmless, UNTIL, someone sees someone launching a rocket down at the park and they start screaming to the local officials that there's someone in the park launching a rocket or missile. It won't matter if it's a toy water rocket or a BP model rocket. They'll "quote" the SBC commercial and what happened to the car. They'll THEN demand of the local officials the activity stop, an ordinance should be passed, a law passed, etc.
BAM! Black eye for the hobby in WhereEver, U.S.A.
- John
"Looking forward to warmer weather so I can fly some rockets." Remove the SAFETY to reply.
The ad is now on broadcast T.V., I've seen it two times on NBC tonight. I've also fired off a message to SBC too.
-- "In this universe the night was falling,the shadows were lengthening towards an east that would not know another dawn. But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered: and along the path he once had followed, man would one day go again."
Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars
SIAR
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Telescope Buyers FAQ
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of Dahlias Slideshowv1.0 $10.00 for Windows machines. Email: snipped-for-privacy@despammed.com
Doing so will not automagically change peoples world-view, but it can at least get this ad off the air. How many people still think of "Made in the USA" when they think of Walmart or "It keeps going and going and going" when they think of energizer batteries even though these ads have not run for quite some time. I know these thoughts still linger in the back of my mind even though I know there are very few Walmart goods that are still made in the states. It does us ill service to have this ad continue airing on TV stations. I don't think anyone wants people to have lingering memories of how flying rockets will blow up your car, especially when they are considering taking up the hobby--or allowing their kids to do so.
Yet they would not be so likely to state this if this was an ad showing a minority group "accidentally" stealing from a convenience store, or someone of eastern decent "accidentally" committing an act of terrorism, or even two rich white kids "accidentally" killing their parents as they sleep. While all of these events have happened, it does not mean that everyone in that group behaves that way.
SBC's response that this ad is _meant_ to be humorous may be true--however, most people do not understand rocketry. Most of the public is only going to find humor in a subject that they understand. Think of the last quantum mechanics joke that you told. How many people got the joke? How many of them were not involved in the sciences? Now think how many people in the world are not involved in the sciences. many people are going to view this ad as a statement to the dangers of hobby rocketry. Someone I know that doesn't fly saw this ad and she commented, "See? I told you it was dangerous."
'Way back in the mid 1970's the kid across the street and I were launching rockets in Bott Park on the old West side of Colorado Springs. There were some other kids in the area that would carry off all of your stuff if you left it unattended, so we took turns launching and retrieving.
I launched a Sprint and went to collect it, and when I came back my buddy told me a story about a lady over at the tennis court coming unglued and making quite a noise. I received this story with some skepticism, and after a brief discussion he launched the one he had ready. He wasn't making it up. The lady went ballistic herself. I happened to see her tennis racket go straight up, end for end, when the rocket was launched (we were launching on the hillside a 100 feet or more from the nearest court).
He went to get his rocket, and the lady came over and started in on me. I just said, "it's a public park, lady." She threatened us, called us names, called our families names and called our lineage into question using strong but not profane language. (I've never since met someone who could do that so well - her vocabulary was impressive.) We launched another. Same result. Eventually the police arrived.
The copper turned out to be quite a nice guy. He didn't yell at us, talk down to us, treat us scornfully, or anything like that. He seemed genuinely interested in us and our activities. He looked at what we were doing, inspected our rockets, looked at our motors and launch setup and made some kind comments about our stuff.
He then went on to explain that we were right about it being a public park, and he understood that we weren't breaking any laws, but that we had to share the space with others. Since we were clearly making the lady upset he suggested strongly that we pack up for now and come back later. We did, and I don't recall ever having a run-in like that since.
I know it isn't the 70's anymore (thank heaven) and that we have a new situation with terrorists in America (the rest of the world's been dealing with 'em for a long time - isn't it ironic that the same people criticizing the Israelis for "over-reacting" are themselves over-reacting?) But I'd like to think that cooler heads still prevail in America, and that the voice of reason and calm rational logic still has weight. So let's not borrow trouble.
I have seen the commercial a couple of times now. On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being rocketry might get shut down as a result and 10 being it promotes the hobby I would give it an 8.
Yes, but the ignorance of the average soccer mom is a fearful beast to behold, and anything involving fire and apparent danger to family or children removes most of their rational ability to think
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