Some are calling it an elaborate hoax and a sneaky marketing trick – a sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object over Vancouver’s Nat Bailey stadium during the September 3 game by the Vancouver Canadians.
Designed by the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, the UFO was meant to draw attention to the new and improved digital centre.
“We were worried but we tried to take a lot of precautions to let people know that it probably wasn’t a real UFO,” Rob Appleton, executive director of the MacMillan Space Centre, told Jill Krop on UNfiltered. “For instance, where it appeared, if people look at the pictures, the trees are behind it, it clearly is no more than three-feet in diameter.”
“We never flew it over people, water, or roadways.”
Appleton said they did a lot of research before this stunt and there was no special licencing required, but they got insurance in case something happened.
There have been some negative responses to the video, with people being upset they were duped.
“We purposely actually didn’t let the Canadians in on it because that probably would have spoiled the fun,” said Appleton.
The new centre was funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education, the B.C. government, and W.E.D (Western Economic Diversification department) of the federal government and part of those funds did go towards the campaign.
Appleton said they let the hoax go on just the right amount of time before anyone got too annoyed.
“I think part of the grant from the W.E.D was to promote the new planetarium,” Appleton told Krop, “and I’m talking to you tonight Jill and the amount of money we got from W.E.D wouldn’t buy more than a minute of airtime.”
This hoax comes on the heels of another hoax video from Jimmy Kimmel – this one about a twerking video gone wrong.
Kimmel was in on the joke and showed a reel on his show of the media reaction, including a clip of Global BC’s Morning Show, talking about how we were all duped.
Appleton said, from his perspective, part of the tactic was to use social media to get the message out. “Part of the reason that we didn’t let it go too long, is we really value our relationship with the media and we don’t want to take you down a path that you don’t want to go down,” he said.
“It’s the first time in our 45 year history we’ve tried something like this,” he added.
“From a scientific point of view, we do believe there is life in the universe, we just don’t know where it is.”
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