what's up with the feel-good Boeing ads?

[Neecy]

You know, the ones that show those uniformed service heroes - all of them as attractive as professional models, if you get my drift - and how Boeing is keeping our chirren and families safe (while they show missiles whirring out of their silos, no doubt en route to someone ELSE's chirren and families).

Why this barrage of Boeing ads? It's not as though we can afford to put a B767 or missile system on our Visa cards. Is it directed at their shareholders? Or do they fear being "Halliburtoned", and the target of taxpayer rage when we find our pockets picked and the proceeds going directly to Boeing? I don't get it.

[drhilarius]

1. has anyone seen the feel good halliburton ads?

[boobooday]

2. Propoganda

It's all about promoting their business, which is war. If it looks all glamorous and patriotic and shit, people will want more.

They are sick bastards. Also, they need to look friendly, because they want to be part of "privatizing" the rest of our government.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[blm]

3. I see them intended as proBush/prowar propaganda.

.

[pacifictiger]

4. I noticed them about a month ago

- not surprising given they are part of the military/industrial complex loop and stand to gain enormous profits helping to ensure the Bushco PNAC doctrine remains in control.

[salib]

5. Just to ensure profits, not an administration

Does anyone really believe that Boeing, or any of the other military-industrial complex (as Eisenhower warned us), would really get any less under Kerry? I sure don't. No, they do not care who wins, really, except that they have to deal with different users of the "revolving door." However, they DO need to put a good face on the business of death that they pander to any administration that we get.

[Neecy]

6. you may be right

I just checked Boeing's soft money contributions since 1998, and while they gave more to Republicans their donations to Democrats aren't far behind.

What's sickening is that a lot of this money - both for their political contributions and their unnecessary advertising - comes out of profits made out of taxpayer's pockets. I don't think they're selling many new aircraft these days, so they must be focusing on their defense contracts.

[lostnfound]

10. Linda Daschle (Tom Daschle's wife) is lobbyist for Boeing

They hedge their bets.
Of course, the attack dogs in the WH today don't like bet-hedgers, so Boeing seems to have lost some pull.

[Lisa]

7. and oh, so modest

"We didn't invent freedom, but ..."
"We didn't invent democracy, but ..."

Of course, they didn't think anything of outsourcing (and taking jobs away from my neighbors in Washington State). How patriotic!

[arcos]

8. same as the Exxon ads...

where they talk about how great their new oil extraction methods are, that allow them to drill on places with extreme conditions.

They want us to think that's somehow positive!

[Taxloss]

9. We're getting the same thing

for BAE Systems, formerly British Aerospace. "Defending your freedom and defending your jobs", just when they're piling into Libya selling WMDs.

[newyawker99]

21. Hi Taxloss!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[thebigidea]

11. I think I need to do one for them...

like I did for:

http://www.terminalproduct.com/halliburtoncommercial.mp3
http://www.terminalproduct.com/carlylegroup.mp3

no charge, Boeing! Its on me!

[strategery blunder]

13. about those mp3 ads that you keep putting out...

where do I get a free mp3 player so I can actually VIEW them?

[thebigidea]

14. winamp is nice

www.winamp.com

my gawd, I can't imagine not being able to play mp3s.

(looks over at huge piles of tapes, records, cds.)

oh wait, maybe I can.

[strategery blunder]

15. I never cared until I joined DU

then I found all these bu$hco spoof ads in mp3 format that I couldn't view. But I'll try it.
Thanks!

[Nailzberg]

12. I was wondering about those, too.

It's not like your average joe watching Law and Order is trying to price between and Airbus and a 757? Why the hell are they running ads on my TV?

[KharmaTrain]

16. Please Fly...With Your Tax Rebate...

Those who can are making their summer travel plans. This looks like a lure to make people back onto planes...especially their big ones. They wants people to think their big planes are really big safe cushy pillows in the sky rather than possible missiles.

The airline industry is still reeling...between the shitty economy (who can afford a vacation?), business cutbacks (teleconferences vs. corporate meetings), airport security (insert your own joke here) and overall national security (or lack thereof)...Boeing looks like they're trying to nudge those who can fly into taking that trip to Europe or Crawford, Texas this summer.

Why now? Well, some are seeing thousands of reasons why when they're signing their final tax returns and wondering what they could do with a few of those extra Chimpster sheckles they just got.

Of course we're not supposed to get it...we're not worthy.

[coda]

17. Boeing is in dire need of PR. They're very close to losing the tanker deal

In fact it's probably lost, at least for the time being.

You read the stories and you'll see why McCain (and others) were raising hell about it.



R E L A T E D L I N K S
• Boeing rewrote tanker contract
• Air tankers called 'dead as disco'
• Boeing e-mails offer interesting look
• Revelation further tarnishes tanker deal
• Graphic: Key dates in the scandal

Posted on Mon, Mar. 29, 2004


Air Force helped craft measure awarding Boeing tanker deal

By ALAN BJERGA

Knight Ridder Newspapers


WASHINGTON - A former Air Force employee who's now facing indictment played a key role in creating the legislation that handed a controversial tanker-aircraft program to Boeing Co., according to internal Boeing documents obtained by Senate investigators.

Darleen Druyun, then an Air Force tanker negotiator, worked closely with Boeing and congressional supporters to pass the 2001 law that set up the $23.5 billion leasing program, the documents show.

One e-mail indicates that Druyun kept Boeing officials informed of her efforts on behalf of the legislation while she was working for the Air Force.

"The primary (tanker lobbying) effort has focused on a briefing Darleen expects to take to Sen. Stevens," said one Boeing e-mail, dated Sept. 30, 2001. Sen. Ted Stevens, R- Alaska, inserted a provision in a December 2001 appropriations bill that called on the Air Force to lease 100 767s from Boeing to be used as tankers.

The same e-mail, from Boeing's lead tanker negotiator, John Sams, to several Boeing officials, noted that "throughout the uniformed AF (Air Force), the realization exist (sic) that leasing is considerably more costly to the AF and the taxpayer."


more.....

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/8306717.htm



=====

Air Force let Boeing rewrite contract

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY

Knight Ridder Newspapers


WASHINGTON - The Air Force gave the Boeing Co. five months to rewrite the official specifications for 100 aerial refueling tankers so that the company's 767 aircraft would win a $23.5 billion deal, according to e-mails and documents obtained by Knight Ridder.

In the process, Boeing eliminated 19 of the 26 capabilities the Air Force originally wanted, and the Air Force acquiesced in order to keep the price down.

The Air Force then gave Boeing competitor Airbus 12 days to bid on the project and awarded the contract to Boeing even though Airbus met more than 20 of the original 26 specifications and offered a price that was $10 billion less than Boeing's.

<snip>

But the e-mails and other documents show just how intent the Air Force was on steering the deal to Boeing, even though Airbus' tankers were more capable and cost less.


more......

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/8293469.htm




====



Posted on Mon, Mar. 29, 2004

Air tankers called 'dead as disco'

That's what a policy analyst says of the program's future amid details of Boeing's cozy relationship with the Air Force.

BY ALAN BJERGA

Wichita (Kan.) Eagle


WASHINGTON - Good program or bad, wise spending or taxpayer rip-off, the Boeing 767 tanker deal is too controversial to continue, according to experts who have followed the proposal since its formation.

Sunday, Kansas lawmakers defended the program to acquire 100 modified tankers for the Air Force. A Knight Ridder report showed that the Air Force gave Boeing five months to rewrite official contract specifications that were then used in the tanker-contract competition with rival Airbus.

"Boeing can give us a better plane in the least amount of time," said Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard.

But with yet more fallout expected in what has become a top scandal in the nation's capital, Washington tanker-watchers doubt that the current proposal to lease some planes while purchasing others can survive the heat of yet another revelation of bad Boeing ethics.

"It's dead as disco," said Keith Ashdown, policy director for the Washington group Taxpayers for Common Sense.



more....

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/8304060.htm

[pacifictiger]

18. here's a link to another publication

http://www.freep.com/money/business/boeing29_20040329.htm
I didn't know that when Boeing moved to seattle it was to Hastert's home state - and since when did white house chief of staff Card's role include negotiating military deals?

[BiggJawn]

19. I was SO proud, I ordered 3 B-2's...

Hope they're not TOO pissed when they run my Mastercard...

[Neecy]

20. equally strange....

Is the energy company (I forget who it is) who shows happy little cartoon-like clips of nuclear power plants being built to the tune of "Funky Town". When I first saw it I thought it *must* be satire.