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Parrot, we love you, but is this really the message you want to send?

Posted by Chris Anderson on August 12, 2010 at 2:00pm

I get the whole cheeky viral video thing, but this one from the Parrot AR.Drone team just seems obnoxious and irresponsible. Or am I just being over-sensitive?

Speaking of the AR.Drone, my production version just arrived. I'll add unboxing pictures in a few...[Update: here]


UPDATE: There's a second one, even worse. Now they're tormenting animals:


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Comments

  • rad man August 22, 2010 at 8:57pm
    Thats the most awesome thing ever.....not gonna lie.....all we need here is a sense of humor...its just golf. and its just a bull thats been through more stress than that in its life.
  • James Turner August 14, 2010 at 2:00pm
    I wouldn't worry too much about the video. It may be high tech but it's a small expensive toy and if someone decides they want to use it in that way chances are they have already tried it with something they bought from the supermarket, toy store etc.. and that got destroyed as well. The real problem is when someone decides they want to use the bigger airframes for silly antics such as that idiot who flew a helicopter in the park a while back and hit some poor girl. Those are the ones that will damage us all.
  • Norbert Machinek August 14, 2010 at 10:27am
    These vids clearly show how easily you can get into trouble by using that toy.
    Spying, scaring and annoying other people, making animals angry or scared and such...

    Responsible flyers don't do these things. They care for the environment, kids, animals, other peoples properties. No good advertising for these kind of hobbies...

    And the second vid contains the sense within: pure BULLSHIT! ;-)

    I can already see situations like this coming up:
    In some areas it'll be better to carry a baseball bat or tennis racket around just in case you meet one of these toys. I'd consider this as an act of self-defense, lol!
  • Garry Qualls August 13, 2010 at 7:04pm
    Parrot was really classy and smart up to this point in their product rollout. The CES debut was great and generated a lot of positive buzz. They have continued to generate a pretty steady stream of positive articles since then. They also had the advantage of associating themselves with smart phones and portable music players, which both have high-end, squeaky clean images. These ads really mystify me. For starters, each one shows the product being angrily destroyed. The message seems to be "Rich jerks who lack empathy use these to bother others, but those being bothered often destroy them." I wonder what concepts were rejected for these to end up as Plan A?

    By the way, kids don't buy $300 toys, their parents buy them for them. Is there any other toy or product that is sold with this sort of attitude? If you can think of one, I bet it is priced low enough that kids can buy it for themselves with their allowance money. I can't imagine who they will coax into destroying one in the 3rd installment.
  • Mathew krawczun August 13, 2010 at 5:21pm
    @ Lee nagle


    This is no joke ad you seem to forget it’s not much more then most game systems and most houses have them. Lets not even talk about the fact that these things will be dropping i price fast so while this may be true today it won't be soon. all it takes is a few A$$ hole to take it away from the rest of us and what you don't seem to get is you pointed out what we're scared of. There is a Hugh difference between flying a commercial aircraft and anything RC and that is years of training, government scrutiny, giving there flight plans 60 or more days in advanced and have to spend loads of money to even get the right to do so.

    To fly RC aircraft you don’t need any of that.

    right now most of us can fly an RC aircraft at any age and can go to the closest hobby story and buy an okay RC for a few hundred. This happens because no one pays attention to us that much, But if enough people do stupid things like this that will all change. We’ll get laws that you can only fly if you’re a certain age, you’ll have to take classes, you have to have the RC certified EVERY year and a 1000 other things that can easily stop most people from getting into this hobby.

    There’s a lot that can happen to flying RCs let alone the hooby of building UAVs at home which many governments are uneasy with already.
  • lee nagle August 13, 2010 at 4:50pm
    Why don't we ban commercial flight while were at it because a couple of imbeciles flew some planes into buildings! You guys tend to forget that the number who would be stupid with any Rc aircraft is very few while the number who fly safe is large so how can they ban the entire hobby as you say on the actions of few
  • lee nagle August 13, 2010 at 4:45pm
    You guys are kidding aren't you this thing is priced well enough out of these stupid kids you talk of reach. This is only another Fpv airframe, do you see people doing this sort of thing with Fpv?
  • Paul Marsh August 13, 2010 at 3:26pm
    @Al--I didn't mean to go on the attack there, sorry.
  • Paul Marsh August 13, 2010 at 2:23pm
    @ Al Billings "These are marketing, folks. Get over it."

    You don't give all advertising a pass just because it's done by marketing folks, as if poor judgement is to be expected and ignored. Marketers frequently make poor judgements, or the managers that go along with their poor suggestions, and they have to be called on it. First, it can be bad for the company itself, in which case, tough luck for them. However, as has already been noted in this thread, it can have broader impact. I'm guessing the marketing geniuses at AR Drones are already aware of this thread and will weigh the balance of increased sales vs. lost sales. If the RC community honestly thinks these ads will have a negative impact on our hobby, then we ought to be writing to DR Drones directly and respectfully request that they pull the ads for that reason.
  • Mathew krawczun August 13, 2010 at 1:47pm
    @ Mr.drone

    There talking like "old women" as you say because THAT’S the kind of people you have to worry about. These videos could lead to some of the stupider kids who get these toys to cause major problems for the rest of us. I mean UAVs are just on the edge of what is legal in most countries and it wouldn't take a lot to push them over that edge and then no one will be having any fun. it could even lead to getting RC aircraft band as well because some old woman doesn't like it.

    sure these were kind of funny but you have to think the long trem impact here which could be eery bad for us.

    also don't think that just because a few countries enjoys treating bulls like this doesn’t mean someone from another country won't freak out and try to get these things (or anything like them) banded.
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