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Magazine ad "unleashes hell" for Boeing and Bell
EFL:Bad Boeing! Bad Bell Helicopter! No cookies for you!
Boeing and its joint-venture partner Bell Helicopter apologized yesterday for a magazine ad published a month ago — and again this week by mistake — depicting U.S. Special Forces troops rappelling from an Osprey aircraft onto the roof of a mosque."It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell," reads the ad, which ran this week in the National Journal and earlier in the Armed Forces Journal. The ad also stated: "Consider it a gift from above."
The ad appears at a time when the United States is trying to improve its image in the Muslim world and Boeing seeks to sell its airplanes to Islamic countries. Boeing and Bell officials agreed that the ad — touting the capabilities of the vertical-lift Osprey aircraft — was ill-conceived and should never have been published."We consider the ad offensive, regret its publication and apologize to those who, like us, are dismayed with its contents," said Mary Foerster, a vice president of communication's for Boeing's military side.
Yes. "Dismayed"! That's it!
Mike Cox, a Bell vice president, said the ad was developed by TM Advertising of Irving, Texas, and then initially released for publication by his company. "The bottom line is that the [Bell] people who approved this didn't have authority to approve it," Cox said.
Hey. Let's see how CAIR likes this one. HeeHeeHee...
The company statements were released yesterday in response to an outcry from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based Islamic civil-liberties group. The building depicted in the ad has an Arabic sign that translates as "Muhammad Mosque," according to the council.
Have them rappelling down on CAIR headquarters from a V-22 next time.
The ad may deepen concern overseas that the war on extremists is a war on Islam, said Corey Saylor, the council's government-affairs director. "This can be used by the extremists to reinforce that — and we certainly don't want that," he said.
Oh, I'll bet...
The ad image was spliced together by computer from various photographs. One picture was a shot of a Texas movie set, according to Cox. Another was a shot of Special Forces troops rappelling off a wall in California. "We didn't actually hover an Osprey over a mosque," Cox said.
From what I've heard about the Osprey, they could've had it crashing into a mosque.
"We had received specific direction from the agency representing Boeing/Bell to not run the ad," said Elizabeth Baker Keffer, executive vice president of National Journal, in a statement released yesterday to the American-Islamic council. "While the mistake was a simple human one, we accept full responsibility for the error. Moreover, we regret any negative impact on your organization and its members." The prompt damage control should help contain the public-relations fallout for Boeing and Bell, said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation and military analyst for the Teal Group of Fairfax, Va. Still, it amounts to a black eye. "You can explain this," Aboulafia said. "But people see what they want to see."
Next time we'll have it pulling pippies and kittens off of New Orleans rooftops...
Posted by: tu3031 2005-10-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=131241