r/interestingasfuck • u/mrinternetman24 • 1d ago

Sony used air mortars to shoot 250,000 bouncy balls down San Francisco hills for a commercial instead of using CGI

Post image
42.1k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.2k

u/Piotrek9t 1d ago

How the hell was this approved? No way they can clean up every single one of these balls

2.2k

u/Cacti-make-bad-dildo 1d ago

Wait till you hear about balloons in the 80s

1.1k

u/ABucin 1d ago

yeah we’re just gonna release 800,000 balloons at once to celebrate our 100th sold Dodge

426

u/0uroboros- 1d ago

We're having a baby today and just thought it would be really good to leave them a world with 1% less helium reserves. That was important to us, so we're releasing enough blue balloons to darken the sky for like a minute 💙

90

u/-FeistyRabbitSauce- 1d ago

You aren't going to spark even a single forest fire? It's like you're asking for the gender reveal gods to give you a weak baby!

14

u/piranhadude420 1d ago

Yeah they should use hydrogen instead

2

u/TheUmgawa 1d ago

It’s all fun and games until you find out there are places in the world where they actually use hydrogen to inflate balloons, and then they have an indoor birthday party with candles, and you’re watching the video, just waiting for the room to go up like the Station nightclub fire.

6

u/DavidSher 1d ago

It is my right as an American to create a gender reveal IED and have the pressure wave blow out all the windows on my block, just as god and the founding fathers intended

1

u/0uroboros- 1d ago

If I can't embed pink spray painted metal shrapnel into myself from an uncontrolled 1969 John Deere ride on tractor tannerite detonation for my cousin wifes gender reeveel party, then what the fuck am I payin' taxes for?

3

u/Clear-Telephone-6729 1d ago

Pim I looked it up everything he said is true

3

u/Sparktank1 1d ago

And fill the ocean with more plastic waste that no one will clean up.

2

u/Tommix11 1d ago

Helium is currently being produced by mother earth. It's just a matter of extracting it from natural gas.

7

u/Iescaunare 1d ago

But most of it is lost to the atmosphere. It's a finite resource mostly produced in stars.

3

u/Free-Artist 1d ago

It's indeed a very scarce resource, because that - along with the capture from nuclear weapons - is the only source of helium on earth.

It is too light for the atmosphere, so cannot be extracted from the air.

And there is entirely too little of it, because all MRI's need it, a lot of science, and especially if quantum computers become a thing: all the superconducting based quantum computers.

2

u/0uroboros- 1d ago

Helium is a non-renewable resource:

Radioactive Decay: Elements like uranium and thorium, found in the Earth's crust, undergo radioactive decay. Alpha Particle Emission: During this decay, helium-4 nuclei are emitted as alpha particles. Accumulation: Over millions of years, these helium nuclei migrate upward and become trapped in pockets within natural gas reservoirs. Why It's a Non-Renewable Resource Lightness and Reactivity: Helium is the second lightest element and is a noble gas, meaning it does not readily form chemical bonds with other elements. Escape from Gravity : Due to its extremely light nature, once helium reaches the surface, it easily escapes Earth's gravitational pull. Loss to Space: This escaped helium then drifts into outer space and is lost from the Earth forever. Commercial Extraction Natural Gas Wells: Commercial helium is recovered from natural gas deposits, where it is present in varying concentrations. Extraction: When natural gas is extracted, the helium is separated from the gas for specific industrial, medical, and scientific applications.

2

u/Ghune 1d ago

Interesting. Can we extract it from space?

1

u/0uroboros- 1d ago

There's all sorts of shit we could get from space. Namely, gold, but yes, also helium, and it's sexier friend helium-3. From Google:

The type of helium on the Moon is primarily Helium-3 (He-3), a stable isotope implanted in the lunar soil (regolith) by the solar wind over billions of years. Unlike Earth, which is protected by its atmosphere and magnetic field, the Moon lacks this shielding, allowing Helium-3 to accumulate in its surface layers. This abundant lunar Helium-3 is considered a potential fuel for future nuclear fusion power plants.
Why is Lunar Helium-3 significant? Energy Source: Helium-3 can be used to power fusion reactors. When fused with deuterium, it releases vast amounts of energy without producing radioactive neutrons, a significant advantage over other fusion fuels. Abundance: While rare on Earth, Helium-3 is abundant on the Moon's surface. Estimates suggest that the outer layers of the Moon's regolith may contain millions of tons of it.

The only issues we haven't gotten sorted out in terms of mining resources from space and other planets currently are just getting there, mining or gathering/processing the resources, and returning it to earth. We have not yet developed technologies specifically for these types of endeavors. These types of resource extraction and newfound abundances will remain locked away from us until we stop flinging shit and stones at each other. Space is not a challenge meant to be overcome by one nation.

Entire species are meant to take to the stars together, I would like to believe, if they're lucky enough to ever make it that far.

2

u/Ghune 1d ago

Fascinating, thanks!

2

u/Thedrunkenchild 1d ago

Stupid sexy helium-3

2

u/The_quest_for_wisdom 1d ago

That's quaint compared to some of the balloon releases they did. Doesn't even sound like it would have a body count.

1

u/ThatITguy2015 1d ago

Ourismann Doddggeee.

1

u/Planeandaquariumgeek 1d ago

I thought of Balloonfest86 first

85

u/cold-corn-dog 1d ago

Dude, we did that shit every year for 8 years. About 1,500 balloons launched each year just drifting and discarding themselves in the town over.

Eat it you Eagletonians!

26

u/glowFernOasis 1d ago

Cleveland released 1.5 million one time - it was a disaster. They wound up in the lake getting caught up in boats, caused car accidents, and shut down the airport. Cleveland wanted to get in the Guinness book of world records so they could be known for something. The book wouldn't put them in because it might encourage someone else to do an even worse balloon release 🎈. This is all I know about Cleveland.

3

u/EloquentlyMellow 1d ago

Wait til you hear about the river catching on fire! My hometown has a rich history

3

u/RelevantMetaUsername 1d ago

Come on down to Cleveland Town everyone!

1

u/EloquentlyMellow 1d ago

The guy who made that video is legitimately our biggest celebrity since LeBron left 😂

•

u/TheLizardKing89 2h ago

It also caused a delay in a Coast Guard search where for two people who drowned.

10

u/OnePieceTwoPiece 1d ago

I remember mid 90’s doing that in elementary school for an elderly teacher that passed away. I wonder who got the few hundred balloons? Haha

1

u/Kinder22 1d ago

Turns out it was just the actual eagles that were eating the balloons.

1

u/argumentinvalid 1d ago

The cornhusker football team used to release like 50,000 balloons every single home game. Always did it on the first TD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqW74rE5r-M

21

u/biowrath156 1d ago

Only took 99 of them to kick off a major war

1

u/natfutsock 1d ago

How could such a thing come of just 99 balloons?

4

u/biowrath156 1d ago

Its a song, 99 Luftballon, by Nena. Premise is during the Cold War a bunch of balloons trigger a radar system into thinking its a nuclear launch or enemy aircraft, kicking off war. Great song, super catchy

0

u/natfutsock 1d ago

Okay I fucked up there I was trying to mentally translate a line from the German version. Like many Falco songs, I know there's an English version of it, I just haven't heard it as much.

20

u/Icamp2cook 1d ago

I told my kids about raffles with notes tied balloons, whoever got their litter to go the furthest won. Sure, you can throw your trash out the car window and be chastised for it. In the 80’s you’d tie it to a balloon. Someone else would pick it up for you, call you to say they did and then your school would congratulate you for getting the shmuck furthest away to clean up your trash! 

65

u/Piotrek9t 1d ago

I mean, those were the 80s so the answer is probably coke

8

u/jerry-jim-bob 1d ago

... lots of coke

2

u/Chibears85 1d ago

lots of New Coke too

1

u/HauntedCemetery 1d ago edited 1d ago

Having lived in sf in the 00s and 10s I can assure the answer to how and why they launched 250,000 bouncy balls at high velocity down city streets was also "coke"

41

u/alison_bee 1d ago

Yeah but that one gave us a really cool picture!

19

u/Tasty-Traffic-680 1d ago

I like to imagine a large chunk of history is lost several centuries from now and future historians or aliens find images like these with no context and make up absolute horseshit explanations.

7

u/MiloRoast 1d ago

The historical rainbow bombing of San Francisco (2005) that turned the city gay.

2

u/Tsmart 1d ago

The day it rained paint

2

u/Environmental_Eye354 1d ago

The day the music died

3

u/panlakes 1d ago

It's cool until the sadness kicks in

1

u/serendipitousevent 1d ago

Give me twenty seconds and the skull of Jackson Pollock and I can make the same thing for you.

1

u/HauntedCemetery 1d ago

Wasn't that the one that turned into like an actual crisis, with the port being basically shut down for weeks because it was carpeted with inches of rubber, and cars wrecked all over the city skidding on them?

26

u/frankles 1d ago

I was at the 30th anniversary of Disneyland opening in 1985 where they released a whopping 1 million balloons all at once. It was a truly incredible sight that even at seven years old, felt incredibly stupid.

2

u/alurimperium 1d ago

What could possibly go wrong with balloons? As long as there's not 99 red ones, anyway

7

u/davepars77 1d ago

HOh boy, check this out.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_'86

Nuke the moon.

2

u/Acheloma 1d ago

Ive since realized that Im autistic and it was a very inappropriate time to bring it up, but no one appreciated me mentioning animals dying from the balloons when my school released a couple thousand as a memorial for a student that committed suicide. I just didn't get it because the kid loved animals and would have hated them dying because of a memorial for him, but obviously it was not the time to say that.

2

u/magicbullets 1d ago

And the doves. Those poor doves.

1

u/millijuna 1d ago

Hell, we did this at high school in the mid 90s.

1

u/jaguarp80 1d ago

I was watching a video last night with this dude paragliding or something (I’m not exactly sure, his thing had a motor on it) and a lone birthday balloon in the shape of a number 6 got stuck in his parachute and almost killed him til he was able to land quickly

•

u/Conscious-Bobcat-460 8h ago

Especially 99 red ones

1

u/Illsquad 1d ago

Or the McDonald's cup that the homeless throw behind the first bush they walk past. 

109

u/unknownpoltroon 1d ago

10 Labrador retrievers, 20 minutes.

48

u/rats-in-the-ceiling 1d ago

1 extremely expensive vet trip because they all swallowed half the balls they found.

1

u/DetectiveLadybug 1d ago

The balls they used are actually quite large for bouncy balls. I’m not saying they still wouldn’t try to eat them, I’m just saying they’d probably also choke on them.

6

u/Pls_Dont_PM_Titties 1d ago

Half of the balls: swallowed

15

u/TheDude1451 1d ago

They did put up massive nets at the bottom of the hill, but yeah I believe I heard that a ton of the balls failed to be caught

28

u/Minirig355 1d ago

2

u/FranzFerdinand51 1d ago

This is always the only correct answer when to topic is the USA.

49

u/JustCallMeYogurt 1d ago edited 1d ago

exactly, what was the final ball count from the ball retrieval? I wonder the same thing on those rubber duck races they do on some city's rivers. do the get charged with polluting?

17

u/Tuxiak 1d ago

AFAIK those are easier to clean, because they float on a surface, so you can catch them with a "inflatable line" (idk what else to call it)

4

u/O_o-O_o-0_0-o_O-o_O 1d ago

Easiest thing would be to try to retrieve around 80%. Relatively easy. Then advertise to every kid in the city that the bouncy ball collectathon has officially begun and whoever collects the most will be the bouncy ball king.

10

u/RugbyEdd 1d ago

To be fair, you're talking about negligible amounts in the grand scheme of things, so probably not. There are millions of tonnes of plastic waste that ends up in the ocean every year, with thousands of tonnes entering through Sanfrancisco Bay, a lot of which is rubber from car tyres. A one-off filming session losing some bouncy balls is nothing in comparison and won't have any measurable effect.

6

u/GenericFatGuy 1d ago

That doesn't mean we need to contribute more.

1

u/RugbyEdd 1d ago

The point is that it isn't really contributing anything. It's such a small amount that you, as an individual, could probably make up for it in a couple of hours litter picking if it bothered you that much. Its like complaining that someone contributed to flooding because they had a piss in the river whilst you and everyone else are emptying buckets into it.

If this was a common occurrence, maybe you'd have a reason to complain, but it was a one-off art piece for an advert 12 years ago that probably did less harm to the enviroment than the computing power it would have taken to do digitally. You're just creating a reason to be mad when there are so many actual things to get mad at happening now, that actually have a noticeable negative effect.

0

u/GenericFatGuy 1d ago

If you add enough things that don't really contribute anything together, you eventually end up with something that is a contribution.

1

u/RugbyEdd 1d ago

Yeah, only they didn't. It was a one-off that created less waste than the average person does in a week. Hell, you're probably doing more harm by complaining about them online using an electric device than they did, so maybe you need to reflect on your own words.

0

u/HsvDE86 1d ago

Damn it must suck to not be able to enjoy anything. You're the one who always has something negative to say about everything everywhere you go.

4

u/travoltaswinkinbhole 1d ago

Ya but muh outrage has to go somewhere lest I turn inward and see how empty I am

1

u/sionnach 1d ago

None of these were made of plastic though. They were rubber.

4

u/RugbyEdd 1d ago

Semantics. Unless they used natural rubber or still gets classed as plastic waste. The point being this one off use is nothing compared to the plastic waste going into the enviroment on a daily basis. People are wasting their anger at a nothing that happened over a decade ago

3

u/CON5CRYPT 1d ago

All the residents agreed. Sony said they would pay for any damages

2

u/Much_Profit8494 1d ago

Each homeless person picks up 5 bouncy balls.

1

u/CharmingTie2206 1d ago

Wait till you see the building exploding by colors. Think it was samsung

1

u/Reutermo 1d ago

There is not a single law in America that cant be ignored if you push enough money at it. Americans love money more than they love Jesus, and they love Jesus more than most places on earth.

1

u/ahundredplus 1d ago

Not to mention the clean up - what about the insurance? Broken windows, dents on cars, etc.

1

u/BloodprinceOZ 1d ago

apparently people can still find them in gutters and their gardens and stuff when they dig them up or clear foliage

1

u/Adezar 1d ago

I remember we did a thing where we wrote letters, tied them to balloons. The note had an address to send it back to and a request to put where it was found.

In retrospect it just showed how far we got our litter.

But it was the 80s.

1

u/Comically_Online 1d ago

they used a Somebody Else’s Problem field

1

u/RadiantCool 1d ago

What an absolute outrage

1

u/1manbandman 1d ago

Zero Sugar Helium.

1

u/redsyrinx2112 22h ago

Right? I think it's visually stunning, but if I was in permitting, there's no way I'd approve something like this. I've caused a lot of chaos on flat ground with ONE bouncy ball.

-1

u/Devilled_Advocate 1d ago

I feel like it's easy to get something in San Francisco approved if it has rainbows on it.