B&Q Swindon has 200 Jobs - Tell Someone!

To Swindon town this Saturday for B&Q.

In fact the message was “B&Q 200 JOBS TELL SOMEONE”, celebrating the soon to be opening of a new B&Q megastore in the town.

We operated out of Kemble airfield – nice friendly people there and an easy, accommodating place to pick-up a banner from – and spent two hours sitting on top of Swindon, orbiting the town between the different shopping malls and the football ground, where it looked as if Swindon Town were playing at home.

The new B&Q is pretty close to being complete looking at it from above and as the message we were towing suggests, there are 200 jobs available for anyone who might be interested in working for the company.

Given that it’s January, we were pretty fortunate to get the job in at all over that distance. We’ve asked to do it for two more weekends, which may be asking a great deal of the British weather. Presently we are back at Manston again as our own private strip is completely waterlogged.

Next week, a job for Meridian News South-east for Valentine’s Day. I’ll tell you more later

Get Viper

Of course, when we got to the Big Brother house, Channel 4 TV had other ideas as the clip suggests....!

Big Brother Says BB Bullies Out!

I never thought I would watch Big Brother, let alone play a minor role in the publicity. We've been sitting above the Big Brother house this afternoon in the Airads aircraft towing a banner saying "BB Bullies Out." Sky News appear to have mixed up their schedule and the Sky "copter" left short of fuel before we arrived but a constant loop has been running on Sky News and the BBC picked it up too.

Sky News reports that Jade saw the banner from the hot tub which explains her behaviour with Shilpa later in the day. Can't say that I noticed her though!

However, on Sunday Jade denied Big Brother producers warned her that she had become an international figure of hate and advised her to apologise to Shilpa.

She said: "I wasn't briefed about what was going on outside. Big Brother can only be Big Brother - he's not allowed to tell you anything.

"But I knew a story had broken out because of the aircraft that were over the house. I said I thought it was something to do with me and Shilpa and the argument."

We were extremly lucky with the weather window at Denham, there should have been a howling gale blowing and there wasn't, although we did have our problems on the pick-up with a broken hook which forced us to run late.

A huge traffic jam along the M25 gave plenty of scope to display the message: "BB Bullies Out" on the way into Stapleford to drop the banner. From an advertising point of you I guess you can't buy the kind of coverage we saw today without spending a small fortune!

Strangely enough, another advertising agency called us with a request, in addition to The Sun newspaper. The former asked if we could drop a dummy Formula I car driven by a stuntman in a gorilla outfit, by helicopter into the Big Brother garden. You can imagine my reaction. Not possible in the nicest possible way... cheaper and easier to shoot the Gorilla I told the chap on the phone! Perhaps he did?

Photo courtesy of airadsimages.com

The Right Stuff

If you've ever wondered what's required of a banner pilot, then it's alot like this clip at times but without some of the fringe benefits!

Tour de France 2007 with Airads

With the Tour de France arriving in South-east England in 2007, Airads is already fielding enquiries from interested companies

The three-day extravaganza begins with the opening ceremony in Trafalgar Square on Friday 6 July and continues with the prologue time trial around the streets of London on the Saturday. On the Sunday the focus shifts to Kent when Stage One of the race travels across the county and finishes against the historic backdrop of Canterbury Cathedral.

If you want to see your own message above the race, don't delay. Book today!