Ron Paul Blimp

[SwordOfShannarah]

What if we created an organization to collect donations with the goal of leasing a RonPaul2008.com blimp from here till the election?

How would the media react? Would it be a hit on YouTube.com? What kind of a buzz would a Ron Paul supporter sponsored Blimp create for his campaign?

What would it cost?

[lucky]

Well that is different to say the least.

[DavyDuke17]

Thats absolutely hilarious, and would be so freaking cool. Someone should look up how much it costs because it would be a surefire way to get some attention.

Or we could just do something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Big-Giant-Red-Huge-Advertising-Helium-Balloon-Blimp_W0QQitemZ220119504943QQcmdZViewItem

Here is a site that sells small blimps, I don't think it would be large enough though. The biggest one I saw was a 30 feet one for $5,000. There would be no point in it unless we went all out and got a massive one with a crew.

[daniel]

I think it would cost around 6k to make a hot air balloon of some thing
like a big pig, or a PORK CHOP or something like that.
and who ever they give it to will be happy to fly it. maybe a big ronpaul head ?
{ I'm sure some one can think of something better than I did}
but I think it's a good idea ! SwordOfShannarah

[DavyDuke17]

This makes it sound a little less feasible...
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2007/05/22/flying-high-blimp-advertising-campaigns-cost-500000-to-5-million/


Blimp advertising can be a successful element of a good marketing campaign, particularly since there are only about 25 or so full-sized blimps in the world, says Toby Page, marketing director for The Lightship Group, a company which operates 17 blimps worldwide.

They can also be very expensive. A Lightship Group campaign can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $5 million, writes MarketingSherpa.

Haha, $5 million.. is it coincidence or faith? LOL, how hilarious would it be if Paul used all his campaign contributions on a blimp. While I'd be pissed that he threw the money away it would probably keep me laughing at least until the primaries.

[lucky]

Hey if he blew the campaign money on it and flew it over Washington D.C. and tossed water ballons out of it at the capitol I would still vote for him and help him get more donations to do it again.

[austin356]

im speechless.........

[X_805]

I think it would cost around 6k to make a hot air balloon of some thing
like a big pig, or a PORK CHOP or something like that.
and who ever they give it to will be happy to fly it. maybe a big ronpaul head ?
{ I'm sure some one can think of something better than I did}
but I think it's a good idea ! SwordOfShannarah

Ooo... Paint a blimp like a pig. Fly it around every couple weeks in DC (Of course, DC is probably very restricted airspace so someplace nearby maybe.). Slogan on the side:

Want to stop the pork? Vote Ron Paul 2008.

If Ron Paul gets elected, take the pig down. If he doesn't, keep it up, but change the slogan slightly.

[Obviously Sarcasm]

[dspectre]

Can we rent a blimp for events?

[denvervoipguru]

http://www.balloonsdirect.com/giant_plastic_spheres.htm

[beermotor]

Hey if he blew the campaign money on it and flew it over Washington D.C. and tossed water ballons out of it at the capitol I would still vote for him and help him get more donations to do it again.


Laf, this is an election, not Super Mario 9000 ... :)

[lucky]

Laf, this is an election, not Super Mario 9000 ... :)


Yes but we can dream right? I can just see all the networks talking about it, "Ron Paul just nailed the speaker of the house with a red colored water balloon," "more at 5PM."

I would get a second job just to give more to see that happen weekly.

[SwordOfShannarah]

This makes it sound a little less feasible...
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2007/05/22/flying-high-blimp-advertising-campaigns-cost-500000-to-5-million/



Haha, $5 million.. is it coincidence or faith? LOL, how hilarious would it be if Paul used all his campaign contributions on a blimp. While I'd be pissed that he threw the money away it would probably keep me laughing at least until the primaries.

This is cool info, thanks! Well on the bright side lets not forget the half million amount. That's 5000 people with $100 each. Not so hard to find. Also if we can get the blimp in the air it will serve as advertising for more funds to keep it there.

RonPaulBlimp.com (just got it :) could track the location of the blimp and people could take pictures and video when it comes by. I would imagine it would be all over youtube and the web in general.

We could even have Ron Paul give a press conference in it while we fly over D.C. or something. haha. Anyway we could have fun with it and it would make him known all over the nation- I mean- the media couldn't ignore it right?

I'm going for it.. are you with me?!! :D :p :eek: :confused:

[UtahApocalypse]

What about a small remote control blimp? I have seen these used inside of sports venues before. We could have it flown at big events that have lots of people.

[DavyDuke17]

This is cool info, thanks! Well on the bright side lets not forget the half million amount. That's 5000 people with $100 each. Not so hard to find. Also if we can get the blimp in the air it will serve as advertising for more funds to keep it there.

RonPaulBlimp.com (just got it :) could track the location of the blimp and people could take pictures and video when it comes by. I would imagine it would be all over youtube and the web in general.

We could even have Ron Paul give a press conference in it while we fly over D.C. or something. haha. Anyway we could have fun with it and it would make him known all over the nation- I mean- the media couldn't ignore it right?

I'm going for it.. are you with me?!! :D :p :eek: :confused:

Haha, I am in.. if you need help creating that webpage I could definitely do it for you so pm me if your interested.

If we are trying to go all out and get a massive blimp this company, lightship group http://www.lightships.com , and on there home page they are advertising the A-170 Video Lightsign Airship. In the flier for it which can be found here, http://www.lightships.com/BLIMPFlyer.pdf , they have some articles form newspapers regarding a couple of companies that have used it. In the first article it says: will say that it cost "substantially less than $1-million".

[DavyDuke17]

Here is some more information from another company called WorldWide Aeros Corp and links:
http://www.aerosml.com/advertising.asp .. talks about the benefits of advertising with blimps.
http://www.aerosml.com/faq.asp .. there FAQ that addresses cost and whatnot, which is "between $160,000-375,000 per month" with a minimum 3 month lease.

[SwordOfShannarah]

Here is some more information from another company called WorldWide Aeros Corp and links:
http://www.aerosml.com/advertising.asp .. talks about the benefits of advertising with blimps.
http://www.aerosml.com/faq.asp .. there FAQ that addresses cost and whatnot, which is "between $160,000-375,000 per month" with a minimum 3 month lease.


I'll bet we can work with the blimp company to get things going with less $$ based on the proof in Ron Pauls campaign that donations are skyrocketing with increased exposure (I'm sure we can also get a discount by giving them presence at RonPaulBlimp.com as well). If we can get this off the ground and if it does a good job of gaining attention I'm sure many people will donate to keep it going. At $160,000 we're down to finding 1,600 people with $100. Reports on the web say Ron Paul will have 1,000,000 online supporters very soon. We can do it- and if not in $100 donations then how about 16,000 people with $10??

Also - for the donations, if we collected monies but did not collect enough we could simply hand all the donations over to Ron Paul. I think a few google ads on the site could cover any costs so there is no need to take a single penny out of the donations.

btw- I haven't dressed this profile up at all yet, but you can go to myspace.com/ronpaulblimp and add me as a friend to support this idea.

[lucky]

Wait a minute, so the balloons tossing is being dismissed?

[SwordOfShannarah]

Wait a minute, so the balloons tossing is being dismissed?

yes, unless we can replace the balloons with hand grenades. :p

[lucky]

yes, unless we can replace the balloons with hand grenades. :p

I can get behind that idea but my idea was leading up to girls wearing Ron Paul T-shirts.:D

[torchbearer]

A Ron Paul calender featuring Ladies of Liberty wearing Ron Paul attire?

[lucky]

I can get behind that idea but my idea was leading up to girls wearing Ron Paul T-shirts.:D


Now we are getting on the same wave length.:)

[SwordOfShannarah]

yeah that's good. Sounds like you need to start a new thread and get it going. Is there a synonym for beautiful woman that begins with "R"? The Ron Paul... Rockettes? :D Or maybe we'll call them "The Liberty Ladies". :)


Ok so here is the first prototype for the blimp

http://www.freemp3mail.com/RonPaulBlimp.cfm

It makes a really cool desktop btw

[lucky]

Already thought of that. They could be the Paulettes.

[dspectre]

If you just handed over the $160,000(the money for the blimp didn't work out) , wouldn't you have to make a Political Action Committee or something(You can't just give the $160,000 as an individual)? You might have to seek legal advice for this...

I think a lot of people would help to donate for the blimp, I would be interested.

[SwordOfShannarah]

If you just handed over the $160,000(the money for the blimp didn't work out) , wouldn't you have to make a Political Action Committee or something(You can't just give the $160,000 as an individual)? You might have to seek legal advice for this...

I think a lot of people would help to donate for the blimp, I would be interested.


I think the best thing would be to have Ron Paul Headquarters help us. If they could create a special donations page on their website (just for our use) we could solve the legal problems and any credibility issues. RonPaulBlimp.com visitors could be sent to the newly created special donations page hosted at the Ron Paul website. The money donated via this page would be earmarked for the blimp. If we don't reach the amount needed the money will already be in the right hands.

What do you think? Does anyone know a good way to present this to RP Headquarters?

[lucky]

I think the best thing would be to have Ron Paul Headquarters help us. If they could create a special donations page on their website (just for our use) we could solve the legal problems and any credibility issues. RonPaulBlimp.com visitors could be sent to the newly created special donations page hosted at the Ron Paul website. The money donated via this page would be earmarked for the blimp. If we don't reach the amount needed the money will already be in the right hands.

What do you think? Does anyone know a good way to present this to RP Headquarters?

I doubt that the HQ's can help much. They are undervery strict limitations on what they can accept and the law is very exact on the amounts that can be given. A fund to hire a blimp explicitly for RP would go against the amount that each individual can give to the Campaign.

[dspectre]

Maybe someone will have to make a Political Action Committee? Or use a pre-existing Political Action Committee?

[lucky]

If PAC's specifically are used for Ron Paul then it is still considered a donation for Ron Paul. PAC's are used for being geared toward pushing ideas and not individuals. There are I believe is either 502's or 507's. These can be geared toward ideas also but not for a specific candidates.

This is the reason the campaign finance laws were called an attack on the freedon of speech thing. It made the parties very powerful because if one supports a party then we can give to a individual candidate to a certain amount, then we can give to the state parties and then the national parties. This makes the two major parties very secure in their power.

I plan on giving as much as possible to Ron Paul as I can. If I were to give the max then there is no way I will give to the Republican party itself because even though I have been a life long Republican I now feel they are traitors and will not give a cent to them. So my speech is now limited to what amount the Feds say I can.

As we can see from McCain has a lot of money in his campaign treasury but we have to get as many to get as many as possible to give the max just to get Ron Paul near the same.

[SwordOfShannarah]

I doubt that the HQ's can help much. They are undervery strict limitations on what they can accept and the law is very exact on the amounts that can be given. A fund to hire a blimp explicitly for RP would go against the amount that each individual can give to the Campaign.

I'll write them and see what they can do. I'm not sure it's a bad thing the money will count towards total individual donations. To me this is just a different type of advertising used within the campaign so I don't see it taking away from it. But it sounds like you know the law quite a bit more than I do and these are good things to consider.

I thought of an additional spin that might be interesting- what about using a million dollar homepage model to allow advertisers to create the revenue? We all know RP is huge on the net so I would imagine the site could generate some serious traffic. We could create the million dollar site as a blog so there is always new content to keep bringing visitors back (better for advertisers).

http://milliondollarhomepage.com/

This way advertisers get something and we get our blimp and a great publicity story. Of course we would accept donations as well.

If we end up short there are all kinds of other things we can do with the money- throw a free concert or series of concerts in the primary states. Have Ron Paul speak at them and tons of booths with RP info, etc.

[lucky]

No Sword. I am far from an expert on the law. I just remember when the campaign finance reform (McCain-Feihngold) was being thrown about that this very thing was foretold. It passed very easily as the two major parties got together and passed it.

It was said that it was an attack on free speech as it stopped anyone who wanted to spend what they wished on any cadidate was being squashed. Everybody was so for it back then as they did the scare tactic that the rich were the ones being stopped from throwing a lot of money toward their candidate.

It works fine with only two major parties as whoever wins a primary or the party wants to support can spend all they want on their favorites. Of course in our case Ron Paul is not a favorite and has to get donations from one person at a time. He will get no help from his party trust me. I see McCain though has a lot of money and must be laughing his ass off now on the coup he performed.