QotW 5-18-03: Celebrity.

[GregTheGreat]

Originally posted by E. The Kidd
umm for the past 2 or 3 years there have been ~200+ rookie teams each year.....

Oh, I have recieved some false info then. If that is the case, why not 300+ next year. I hope to see 5 or 6 new regionals next year. The more people involved, the better the future of this country and this world will be.

[gsensel]

I think the political leader is a good idea. Until 1996 or 1997, I think, the winner of nationals got to go to Washington and meet the president.

[Wayne C.]

Originally posted by "Big Mike"
[color=darkblue]
FIRST, then i think that we would bring in more people, but other than that showing somthing during nats, doesnt help much, but maybe what team need to do is somthing like what team 25 did, we sent letters to famous peopleCOLOR]

Mike is talking about a project we did in 2001. Somewhere we found a book of hundreds of celebrity contacts and we made a mass mailing to just about every celebrity involved with sci fi movies, CEOs of all the major companies and people who just came across as cool choices. We mailed out over 200 letters, many personally addressed to the celebrity, explaining what FIRST was and why the celebrity might want to be a part of it.

Of the pile of letters we got over a hundred "returned to sender" because the addresses had changed or the mail was refused. We did get three interesting ones:

Donald Trump sent us a nice autographed photo and letter telling us to keep up the good work

Playboy Enterprises told us that they didn't support groups involving minors as it was inappropriate. It was a shot....

Majel Barrett Roddenberry's former agent (Star Trek fame) wrote us a hand written response encouraging our team to keep trying.


Would any of these letters have interested some big name celebrity in FIRST? Who knows? But we gave it a shot, got the FIRST name out there and maybe planted a few seeds.

WC

[SkitzoSmurf]

Hmmmmm, I'm trying to think of some people who used to be geeky or are geeky and are now famous. I know tis sounds weird, but Shaq loves gadgets, and imagine him a little taller on a Segway or Ibot, lol. Jim Carry? Guy is hilarious, and I'm sure could come up with some material on robots. Bill Gates? Only the most famous guy in the worrld. Stan Lee? Cool creative guy. As for music artists, Linkin Park, ( idunno if they're interested or not, just my fave band), HOW ABOUT OZZY!!! those robots would freak him out, omg, YESSS!!! OK, I'm not coming up with any serious ones. . .

[OneAngryDaisy]

Originally posted by SkitzoSmurf
Hmmmmm, I'm trying to think of some people who used to be geeky or are geeky and are now famous. Bill Gates? Only the most famous guy in the worrld. . .

Bill Gates:




Let's be realistic- how many non-FIRSTers will recognize Bill Gates? We need someone who everyone knows.. someone notorious..

Will Smith would be the ideal choice because hey, he's already involved, and if you don't know who Will Smith is, you're seriously deprived..


Also, wouldn't it be awesome if there was a FIRST episode on the Simpsons where Lisa makes a robot or something? That'd really make us famous.

[GregTheGreat]

Originally posted by OneAngryDaisy
Bill Gates:




Let's be realistic- how many non-FIRSTers will recognize Bill Gates? We need someone who everyone knows.. someone notorious..

Will Smith would be the ideal choice because hey, he's already involved, and if you don't know who Will Smith is, you're seriously deprived..


Also, wouldn't it be awesome if there was a FIRST episode on the Simpsons where Lisa makes a robot or something? That'd really make us famous.

Now the simpson idea, it is good. There are millions of Simpson watchers all over the country. Now I think that it would be cool if Homer was riding around on a Segway while attending a FIRST even. Maybe the title can be "Simpson's go to Houston". As if they haven't wen't on enough trips. lol. Good Idea OneAngryDaisy.

Good Luck to everyone at the invitationals.

[indieFan]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned tapping into the "youth of Hollywood." Since this program is aimed at students, why not get someone of the same age to promote it? I'm thinking of people that are generally on either Disney Channel, FOX, or WB.

Personally, if I can't have an entire tv show based on the year in the life of a robotics team, I'd at least like to see an episode of something like _Malcolm in the Middle_ based on this competition. Can anyone out there imagine a Krelboyn robot?

indieFan

[GregTheGreat]

Originally posted by indieFan
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned tapping into the "youth of Hollywood." Since this program is aimed at students, why not get someone of the same age to promote it? I'm thinking of people that are generally on either Disney Channel, FOX, or WB.

Personally, if I can't have an entire tv show based on the year in the life of a robotics team, I'd at least like to see an episode of something like _Malcolm in the Middle_ based on this competition. Can anyone out there imagine a Krelboyn robot?

indieFan

Good Idea. Maybe a reality TV show on the life of a Robot Team. It would be pretty cool I think.

Good Luck to everyone at the invitationals.

[DanLevin247]

Originally posted by DanielBCR
I would say someone that is flamboyant, or better yet, how about this

Have the guy (name slipping my mind) who used to play superman before he got in a fatal car crash. If we can get him on an Ibot, we have an example of what first is with Dean

Nice question John

Originally posted by GregTheGreat
Do you mean Christopher Reeve?

I think that DanielBCR is talking about Christopher Reeve....but if he was in a fatal car crash, wouldn't that make him dead? FYI...he fell off of a horse, and remains paralized to this day as a result of his injuries. I think he would make a great spokesman for FIRST, as he is constantly pushing the advancment of science and technology.

[GregTheGreat]

Originally posted by DanLevin247
I think that DanielBCR is talking about Christopher Reeve....but if he was in a fatal car crash, wouldn't that make him dead? FYI...he fell off of a horse, and remains paralized to this day as a result of his injuries. I think he would make a great spokesman for FIRST, as he is constantly pushing the advancment of science and technology.

I think he would be a great spokesman especially because of his pursuing for further Science of stem-cell research.

Good luck to everyone at the invitationals.

[JVN]

Originally posted by DanLevin247
....but if he was in a fatal car crash, wouldn't that make him dead?

You can be in a fatal car crash without being the one who died...

[GregTheGreat]

Originally posted by JVN
You can be in a fatal car crash without being the one who died...

Although it would not be a fatal car crash, because he fell of a horse. It wasen't a car crash.

Good Luck to everyone at the invitationals.

[Not2B]

I think a famous person would be good to get the word out...

But why not make Dean and Woody famous? (Maybe hard, maybe not.)

[IMDWalrus]

Bit of a long shot, but getting the cast of the Matrix movies to do a PSA would work wonders for FIRST. For the past two months, it's seemed like everyone around me is obsessed with those movies.

[Josh Hambright]

First off, Great question!

I think that getting a celebrity would be a great thing. Why not celebrities? Often times there are GROUPS of celebrities that endorse groups and charities. Now though it would be cool i'm not talking about a 'we are the world' type of thing for robots, that would be pretty cool the more i think about it. But what if a FIRST event could get media exposer by having several celebrities go to each event and get the media interested. Though this could definately backfire on us and people would just end up freaking out about celebrities instead of robots.

I think getting celebrities who are known for being interested in computers, science and technology. Christopher Reeves is a great example he has been pushing science in technology for years in his quest to walk again and has been a real fighter for raising money to help research in repairing spinal chord injuries. But what about getting someone like (yes my opinion is biased due to the fact i am a fan of his work) Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. He has been a spokes person for apple for years and endorsed their products and been very outspoken about how much he likes them. Something like that, were celebrities could just mention in an article about the program or something in an interview about us, thats the best way to get our name out there.

In regards to the simpsons idea, did anyone else notice how much the spell-olympics competition lisa attended in an episode this season resembled a first competition? I think it would be a great idea if Lisa joined a FIRST team, and they could get a guest apearance from Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers, or any of the other famous faces of FIRST. We already know that Matt Groening knows about segways as there have been multiple references to Segways in the Simpsons, well maybe not multiple but i can think of ATLEAST 1 and i thought there was another. What about ads in teen magazines and that sort of thing that talk about our program, or if Dateline or another News Magazine did a story on a FIRST team (to bad that 60 minutes thing with hammond never happened).

I dont know my brain is empty now...