I think I remember hearing stories about drone swarms creating fantastic art in the skies over Hong Kong. Austin, Texas got an introduction to the technology via an ad for the new Halo TV series.
Not everyone loved it.
Four hundred drones were suspended over the city during the South by Southwest festival to form a giant, hovering … QR code?
The dystopic-yet-impressive stunt came courtesy of Paramount+ to promote its upcoming sci-fi series Halo, based on the popular Xbox game about a warrior fighting off an alien invasion. The display was 300 feet tall (roughly the height of the Statue of Liberty) and 600 feet wide (almost two football fields). And, yes, the QR code was scannable, linking to a trailer for the series (below).
Locals on the Austin subreddit had plenty of thoughts. "This is obviously a sign of the apocalypse," wrote one. "The day I look up to the night sky and see a fucking ad is the day you should just shoot me right there," penned another. "I saw it and got scared and ran inside," wrote another.
