'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Remember the V skywriting stunt? Forget it!
by Allison Waldman, posted Oct 28th 2009 11:21AM
About two weeks ago, with much fanfare, ABC issued a press release about a big promotion for the new sci-fi remake of V. The idea was skywriting giant red "V's" over national monuments around the country. When I read about it, I thought it was pretty clever.
Like ABC media, I didn't contemplate the environment hazard posed by spraying the skies with red skywriting materials. The skywriting stunt has been canceled because one clever reporter did. She snagged ABC in its own press net.
Lisa de Moraes of the Washington Post figured it out and said that the amount of pollution the stunt would create was in direct conflict with Disney's promise to cut its fuel emissions by 50% by 2012.
Ouch! I don't think the air is going to be that much cleaner because ABC won't use skywriting for V. Seriously, there's a lot of other skywriting that is not being grounded and they are just as polluting, but nobody's shining a light on that.
But for ABC this is very embarrassing. What are they doing to V? They've already decided to cut V in half, splitting it into two 'pods' of four episodes each, one starting in November and four in March. That is unusual to say the least, although Steve McPherson, ABC Entertainment President, said that was always the plan.
He might be telling the truth. But I doubt a skywriting screwup was also in that plan. It just really looks bad for ABC and V.
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