There are, no joke, places in the US where people would be screaming for the company’s blood.
It’s not exactly recent, but let’s blame the post-Halloween diabetic coma. Early in November, Candy Crush developer King lit up the night sky over the Hudson River in New York with a 500 drone display celebrating the game’s 10th anniversary.
Turns out, no one really liked that.
But criticism of the stunt wasn’t just constrained to certain residents. Rather, it was something of a vertical slice of the city’s social strata. Notably, state senator Brad Hoylman said the following to Gothamist
It’s offensive to New Yorkers, to our local laws, to public safety, and to wildlife. I think it’s outrageous to be spoiling our city’s skyline for private profit.
Brad Hoylman, New York Senator
And he was far from the least generous towards the ad:
King had to go to great lengths to even pull this stunt. Notably, the company they partnered with to launch the display, Pixis, launched the drones from New Jersey’s Liberty State Park to avoid New York airspace. After all, New York’s far more restrictive on such things. Especially when they’re not being paid for being obstructive.
As bad as this all is, it’s far from the end of it. Already, floating LED ad barges pollute urban rivers. And, oh yes, don’t forget the cube satellites so that we can go higher than drones and display ads from SPACE!!!
And let’s be honest: that bit where I said there’d be people calling for blood? I know it exists. New Mexico, and Albuquerque in particular, has low light ordinances specifically for the sake of preserving the beautiful night sky for stargazers. And I’m pretty sure those stargazers would want to find the person responsible for an ad destroying their viewing pleasure and gut them like a sheep.
So I’m wondering what the breaking point is going to be. A large number of places already ban unlicensed drone flights. It’s just surprising that something that was a joke on Futurama is becoming a real problem.
Source: Futurism
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