Air Force’s ‘Not Science Fiction’ Commercial Totally Is
from Wired.com
If you're like me, you watched in disbelief as the lowly Carolina Panthers trounced the Washington Redskins on Sunday, but you were even more bewildered by an Air Force commercial during a gamebreak. In that ad, Air Force C-17 cargo planes do a number of impossible things — like stuff out of a Michael Bay movie — while the onscreen text promises, "It's not science fiction. It's what we do every day."
For the uninitiated, in the ad — which you can view above — the C-17s swoop over a breaking bridge to evacuate some poor souls in the middle of an emergency. So far, so good. But then the C-17 engines rotate into a vertical position. (Nope.) The behemoth of a plane — which is 174 feet long and can weigh up to 585,000 lbs. — lands on the bridge without collapsing it further. (Would never happen.) And when the C-17's aircrew loads up the wounded and flies off the bridge, the plane physically transforms into a different aircraft. (Um, what?)
I called up the Air Force Recruiting Service to find out how this could possibly not be science fiction. If there's a squadron out there flying Autobot C-17s, then I must embed with it. Noah Shachtman would fire me if I somehow missed that story.
"This one was definitely more cinematic in the beginning," concedes Christa D'Andrea, public affairs chief for the Air Force recruitment arm. "It's a very cinematic, sci-fi sort of campaign."
OK, it's not exactly a Pulitzer-level scoop that commercials exaggerate the truth. But shouldn't an ad promising not to be science fiction contain, y'know, less science fiction?
full @ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/air-force-sci-fi
If you're like me, you watched in disbelief as the lowly Carolina Panthers trounced the Washington Redskins on Sunday, but you were even more bewildered by an Air Force commercial during a gamebreak. In that ad, Air Force C-17 cargo planes do a number of impossible things — like stuff out of a Michael Bay movie — while the onscreen text promises, "It's not science fiction. It's what we do every day."
For the uninitiated, in the ad — which you can view above — the C-17s swoop over a breaking bridge to evacuate some poor souls in the middle of an emergency. So far, so good. But then the C-17 engines rotate into a vertical position. (Nope.) The behemoth of a plane — which is 174 feet long and can weigh up to 585,000 lbs. — lands on the bridge without collapsing it further. (Would never happen.) And when the C-17's aircrew loads up the wounded and flies off the bridge, the plane physically transforms into a different aircraft. (Um, what?)
I called up the Air Force Recruiting Service to find out how this could possibly not be science fiction. If there's a squadron out there flying Autobot C-17s, then I must embed with it. Noah Shachtman would fire me if I somehow missed that story.
"This one was definitely more cinematic in the beginning," concedes Christa D'Andrea, public affairs chief for the Air Force recruitment arm. "It's a very cinematic, sci-fi sort of campaign."
OK, it's not exactly a Pulitzer-level scoop that commercials exaggerate the truth. But shouldn't an ad promising not to be science fiction contain, y'know, less science fiction?
full @ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/air-force-sci-fi
posted by Silent 3 @ Tuesday, October 25, 2011
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