Peace Blimp

[WaltM]

The planes-with-banners information, by the way, was what I got from actually going to the website in the OP. Wouldn't it be helpful to learn such information before criticizing?

by per month, what does it mean?

all 30 days? 8 hours a day?

 

[WaltM]

Small blimp vs large blimp.

What's the size difference?

If a large one costs 4x as a small one, would it better to fly 4 in different places than one big one?

 

[RyanRSheets]

how much money, exactly, did it take to get "Rick Rolled"?

It didn't go viral because someone planned it, it went viral because someone stumbled across it and thought it was freaking hilarious to send it to all of their friends on the pretense of it being something else. We should try to come up with some viral marketing ideas, but you can't plan a meme, they just happen.

 

[WaltM]

It didn't go viral because someone planned it, it went viral because someone stumbled across it and thought it was freaking hilarious to send it to all of their friends on the pretense of it being something else. We should try to come up with some viral marketing ideas, but you can't plan a meme, they just happen.

you're right! it went viral because people thought it was harmless and fun (and it cost nothing, made nothing financially or politically, otherwise you'd have cockblockers)

 

[MelissaWV]

WaltM. Try reading the website. I am trying to be kind, here, but you seem to be deliberately trying to push buttons while simultaneously refusing to push buttons on the website to answer your own queries.

 

[WaltM]

WaltM. Try reading the website. I am trying to be kind, here, but you seem to be deliberately trying to push buttons while simultaneously refusing to push buttons on the website to answer your own queries.

I didn't find the answers, so I'm asking.

 

[RyanRSheets]

PeaceBlimp.com on both sides would be interesting. I feel like reading the words end the wars on a blimp isn't going to do much for most people aside from make them laugh that we launched another blimp to get the point across. The eccentricity to this is what will make it effective, so I think it's pretty crucial that the side of it is interesting.

 

[MelissaWV]

I didn't find the answers, so I'm asking.

1. www.PeaceBlimp.com
2. Click "Specs" (it's at the top of the page, next to that thing that kind of looks like a blimp)
3. Read
4. Stop trolling

 

[WaltM]

1. www.PeaceBlimp.com
2. Click "Specs" (it's at the top of the page, next to that thing that kind of looks like a blimp)
3. Read
4. Stop trolling

done, didn't say what "a month" means

Didn't say what the size difference is between small blimp vs large blimp (compared to a Goodyear blimp)

 

[MelissaWV]

How stupid of me. I didn't add in a step specifically to click on the GIGANTIC YOUTUBE VIDEO of the SMALL BLIMP OPTION that shows HOW LARGE IT IS, and even gives you an idea of HOW IT OPERATES.

 

[WaltM]

How stupid of me. I didn't add in a step specifically to click on the GIGANTIC YOUTUBE VIDEO of the SMALL BLIMP OPTION that shows HOW LARGE IT IS, and even gives you an idea of HOW IT OPERATES.

does that mean it's rented to you to fly however you want for a month?

 

[SwordOfShannarah]

The site was completely attacked today by the pro-war people. If you go to the site now you'll still see remnants of the spam in the suggestion tools.

http://peaceblimp.uservoice.com/forums/39876-what-should-the-blimp-say-

I'm cleaning it up now. This really got a reaction from them.

 

[CaseyJones]

Trevor if you really mean to do a blimp again may I suggest http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/ they claim greater stability in winds and look hungry so you might get some deals

 

[ronpaulhawaii]

The trouble with a blimp is that most people can't even think about one without smiling. I mean, you should have heard me, muttering away in the desert, on my first ride, begging to raise a few thousand while watching the blimp raise half a mil... but I muttered with a smile , don't think I ever said a bad word (other than my mutterings, of course...) and even bought a few minutes of advertising on the thing.

Bottom line is that it ain't easy to keep a blimp down . That there will be hoards of people who would never donate to a candidate, who would donate to a blimp.

And anything that brings people into the r3VOLution is fine by me

... a friggin blimp

 

[reduen]

I hope that you prepared yourself for the opposition this will be huge......

The site was completely attacked today by the pro-war people. If you go to the site now you'll still see remnants of the spam in the suggestion tools.

http://peaceblimp.uservoice.com/forums/39876-what-should-the-blimp-say-

I'm cleaning it up now. This really got a reaction from them.

 

[dr. hfn]

should read "End the wars" End the Empire" Just Come Home ~Ron Paul"

 

[itshappening]

what is the plan to get media coverage?

 

[Mckarnin]

A few considerations...

I think a large scale, unifying initiative, national to start and hopefully growing into an international phenomenon that is pro-peace would be cool.

Alright...a quick reminder on some logistics and a few suggestions (I am not part of the team organizing this in case there was any confusion. Already had one person contact me to say they had donated to "my" project. )

I don't think anyone has forgotten yet the struggles with wind and weather when it came to getting the full sized blimp into the air but they were many and even though we were in the south wind, fog and rain kept the blimp grounded a bit. I also helped coordinate some of the banner flying planes over the NH primaries and they too have logistical issues when it comes to wind. Basically, it is hard to coordinate specific timed events to coincide with these two forms of publicity but if you set yourself a window of a few days and relax you can usually make things happen..but it does reduce the cost efficiency of the project.

Unless something major has changed since 2008 there are strict no-fly zones enforced over most major cities and there are required clearances over tall buildings that the FAA mandates for blimps that can make blimp visibility for rallies difficult. Many airports in smaller cities cannot accommodate blimps. Another consideration when it comes to stress and cooperation is that most blimp companies are used to having a home base and flying out of it daily for days on end, not hopping from place to place across the country. Those are all important considerations.

Now, I think blimps can be a great source of publicity and news coverage when they do something new and interesting (as was the case with the Ron Paul blimp and as would likely be the case with a Peace blimp). There are a few factors though if you want national (vs bits of local) publicity...the blimp needs to be big, the rallies need to be big or there need to be a lot of them. One small blimp traveling around and being at rallies with 20 people each would probably not be very well covered by non-local news outlets.

As far as media goes even the Ron Paul Blimp required hundreds of phone calls and even more emails to get the media coverage that it did and that was pretty labor intensive. The point of that is, don't expect the media coverage to just "happen" no matter how cool the idea is.


When I was coordinating rallies for the Ron Paul Blimp during the height of his presidential campaign, while the money bombs were in full swing and interfacing with meet-up groups all around the cities where the blimp would be we were hard pressed to get more than a hundred people to a rally. The "peace" blimp has the potential (will get into this next) to tap into a much larger demographic than the RPblimp but are peace lovers organized enough to create large scale peace rallies (more organized than the RP grassroots was?) when the blimp comes or will an accompanying structure have to go into place on the ground ahead of the blimp to organize rallies from the ground up?

The message...already seeing "End the Fed" and Ron Paul said "X" quotes going up here. As most of Trevor's current fund raising connections seem to be within the freedom movement (I could be wrong here) this is an ideal place to start but everyone who wants to see this happen needs to realize that if you want funding and coverage to come from across the political and even international spectrum the message of the blimp needs to be kept simple and universal. It can't allude to vague concepts that the majority of folks don't understand, be an "in your face" to people who didn't support Ron Paul, be full of US constitution love, etc... Not that there is ANYTHING wrong with these concepts but they do not make for a universally appealing message that can raise big bucks via a ton of small donations.

Now, a question...so far who all is on the "Peace Blimp" team? I have worked with a good number of the people in this movement on various projects and would like to know that ethical people who have brought success and professionalism to previous endeavors are in charge before a lot of freedom movement money goes into it.

Oh and keeping the dove symbolism (in particular a dove holding an olive branch) may be a good idea as it is ancient and spans the traditions of many cultures and religions and it would be easy for people to create "grassroots" supporting posters, art, cool on ground items like this: http://doveballoons.co.uk/ at rallies. Now if fund raising really starts getting into the millions it might be worthwhile to hire an ad agency, I talked to a very cool one while doing the blimp thing in SC, and have them design a new symbol

 

[itshappening]

Nearly 500 pledges for Trevor's blimp

http://www.peaceblimp.com

http://www.peaceblimp.com

http://www.peaceblimp.com

 

[WaltM]

Nearly 500 pledges for Trevor's blimp

still only nearly!