Dear IPL commentators: Here’s an image — or three — for your consideration:
The Goodyear blimp
Now take a look at this:
Repeat after me: This is a balloon, not a blimp
Right. Now: Read this wikipedia entry on ‘blimp’. And this one on moored balloons.
Get the point? One flies. The other floats.
And stop calling that bloated balloon sponsored by MRF a blimp. It might be part of your contract to hype the hell out of it each time it appears on your screen — but to keep calling it a blimp makes you sound like a collection of idiots.
Oh, and as my friend Ramesh Srivats pointed out on his Twitter stream yesterday, stop raising the decibel count and screaming “There’s the MRF blimp again!!!” As Ramesh said, it’s not the fricking Hailey’s comet — it is a balloon tethered to a string; it is always there.
Thank you
S/d: IPL followers
Smoke Signals 
Dear Sir,
Although you are technically correct with your photos. The MRF blimp as you call it is actually a blimp and flies not floats. It has motorised parts built in that keep it in the air.
Hope this relieves some of your frustration.
Regards
Someone who works on the MRF BLIMP.
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Can I just say that although it seems important to some to make it clear whether the thing above the IPL grounds is a ‘blimp’ or just a floating ‘balloon’, the fact remains the sport of cricket, and it’s commentators have sold themselves out to capitalism by making as much of a big deal about the floating article as they do about the action on the field.
Granted large sums of money has been pumped into the game which sponsors are eager to recover. But wouldn’t worldwide sport be mind-numbingly tedious if it was all promoted the same way as American sport which relies heavily on adverts – before, during and after games.
Thank goodness football/soccer remains advert minimalistic, save that of advertising hoarding. Likewise with other traditional and refined sports like tennis, snooker and golf.
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sorry, but they are contractually bound to say it every time it is shown. let’s not assume they love saying it. am sure they mock it as much as we do off camera. as you’d say, just saying.
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hi
i was thinking about introducing blimp in india for the last 2 years. i have done reserch, made contracts and when i saw it in IPL, i thought that my plans are gone.
but what is this. this blimp shaped baloon was used bu me for airtel advertisements around 6 years back.
this one is a tethered baloon in shape of a blimp. baloons can be in different shapes as ball, cube & blimp.
In MRF, they have helium instead of hydrogen, so that they can use lights inside.
blimps are remotely controlled with a gondola beneath it. it can even carry people.
it can fly from one place to another.
cheers to the commentators.
Here’s something interesting about the “blimp”. They showed it during two of the games held in Ahmedabad. I was at the stadium and the “blimp” was nowhere in sight.
Yeah that was bad. Did you guys hear SG? “MRF has always been at the forefront of technology and once again they are the first to bring a blimp to india!” and i thought MRF made tyres!
I get reminded of @eyepeeyell’s tweets on seeing the MRF balloon. Fun.
No doubt , the current set of IPL commentators are more keen on pimping brands , but at the same time I wonder, what is so very intellectual folks trying to achieve by nit picking on them.
Come on guys , you wanna prove something that you are a tad smarter than those commentators, just because you know how the blimp is different from a Balloon. Go ahead , have fun.
This IPL is really very very interesting, because of folks in there and some left outside. Go ahead , spin some more tales, makes a good read.
Yeah…and it is interesting because of the MRF blimp and not because there are guys playing a game there.
Oh, our “nit picking” is simply this: We would like *some* focus on the cricket as well. For example: In a previous match, Sachin set his field with all his off side players inside the ring and all onside fielders on the boundary line. Fascinating, in that it forced batsmen to play inside out over the top of off, adding to the risk.
In course of two games yesterday, the cameras showed the moon, the blimp and Modi, multiple times. The field setting, not once. Nor did the commentators feel the need to talk about it. So — we are simply asking, can we have some cricket, please, since that is what we are sitting in front of the TV for. If you see that as an attempt by some of us to be smarter than thou, so be it.
Pls…..do not make any efforts to be smarter than moi, you do not require to, at all. Coz, I never would dread dispute the halo which some of the august visitors to this blog carry.I acknowledge the greatness of all without a word of protest.
However, I am still puzzled , for the fact that you turn to IPL for Cricket. Still you do that, we are into the third season of it and people expecting cricket here ?
IPL is for us, the more entertainment deprived ones, I watch for the batsmen, lusty hiting and lust for the cheerleaders. It is meant for the less mentally endowed people and I love Mr. Modi for giving me that, grudgingly though.
Sir, if you think IPL is cricket, pls tread no further. You don’t have to cite instances of classic strategy and ingenuity. This ain’t cricket. And to see the more intelligent brethren sift through tons of crap for those moments of cricketing brilliance is such a painful sight. Pls stop
And Sir, pls don’t block me from posting on your blog’s future. A Che – tan has already blocked me on twitter and encore would be so much more painful.
And pls excuse the typo in the last paragraph . read it as below
And Sir, pls don’t block me from posting on your blog in future. A Che – tan has already blocked me on twitter and encore would be so much more painful.
Ouch. Considerable sarcasm here. A touch of the heavy hand, but who am I to criticize? My apologies for actually expecting cricket.
As for “blocking” — I block trolls. Not commenters.
You nailed it!
I try to understand the commercial aspects of IPL, after all some people have invested millions, they got to get something back. Hence, I do not criticize IPL for its ad breaks and in fact argues with my colleagues on that matter(eventhough I detest the ads as much as them. My usuall question is: if you are okay with 5 mins ad breaks in Sony on sunday movie after 15 mins of actual movie time, why arent you okay with 5 mins break in 1.5 hours. Only this I dont defend is its name- “strategic timeout”. Hell. You better call it “Break”, if not “Ad Break”. But I forgive Modi, its a naming convention after all:-)).
But promotion during the match commentary is something that I cannot really defend. You could ignore one or two references here and there, but having to hear the same exaggerated words everytime- that is nauseating. MRF Blimp, DLF Maximum, City Moment and stuff like that (Actually, MRF blimp is the last in that list, at least they are not substituting a cricketing term with some weird phrase). In fact, I do not criticize the commentators for this- I dont know what is in their contract. For me, the real culprits are: IPL governing council(alias Modi, anybody else in that group?), ICC, BCCI and the Sponsors.
IPL governing council : for the obvious- they are the ones who allowed this shite in the first place.
BCCI, ICC: They are supposed to be the guardians of the game of Cricket. IPL is considered a recognized Cricket tournament and it is their responsibility to ensure that “Sixer” remains Sixer or a “Catch” remains a Catch. I wonder why a “Goal” in Soccer world cup never becomes an “Nike Bang” or something like that. Now, I dont know who is more responsible in this, BCCI or ICC, because, for all monetary purposes they are the same.
Sponsors: They have a right to seek their promotion. But they should be supporters of the game they sponsor in the first place. Why dont we hear commentators screaming “IBM supershot” for a Federer backhand in Wimbledon? The sponsors should have a minimum decency not to undermine the purity of the game they are sponsoring.
Jazzyb,
Furthering your comparison between of an IPL match broadcast and a Sunday movie broadcast, if you are okay with hazaar product placements in a Sunday movie, why aren’t you okay if some moron utters a brand name here and there? If you are making an argument based on some weird logic, please take that logic to its logical conclusion 🙂
Raag, when you see SRK drinking Pepsi in a movie, it is NOT an ad (eventhough the spectator can look at it as an ad, at his discretion, but thats his subjective viewing), it is very much part of the movie. But when SMG screams “Kaarbon Kamaal Catch” it IS an ad, there is no freaking way for me to consider it as part of “Cricket”.
Can you imagine SRK saying “you are as sweet as Pepsi” to Kajol once in every ten minutes in a movie?
Hope you got the difference. Be careful when you use analogies next time.
You can talk! He has a living to make @AaruC: Ravi Shastri, please stop sucking up to Lalit Modi. It’s really really sad.
I know. That was sarcasm, not a recommendation 🙂
Hahaha, but I’d argue that not knowing the difference between a blimp and a balloon is the least of this bunch’ intellectual challenges. As long as Modi and co keep these commentators in corporate madrassas and force them to memorize nothing but the Karboon Quran and the Surahs Maximums and the Hadith moments of success, they are going to have um..knowledge problems 🙂
*grin* I agree, but thought I’d um, “raise the issue” anyway.
Quite true. I thought I was one of the few people who saw the difference between a blimp and a floating balloon shaped like one.
The IPL seems to be a fine cricketing event, but the commentators are focusing less on the cricket and more on “pimping” out the event.