Is there any technology that better imports the semi-anonymous, decidedly pissed-off energy of a really vitriolic internet comment into the real world better than the humble airplane banner attack? Eye-catching, pointed, and literally floating over everybody’s heads, the airplane banner says what you need it to say in a way that is very difficult to ignore—including such lofty sentiments as “Ellison is Trump’s B!tch!”
Said heady conceptual offering floated its way into the extremely complicated political, financial, and legal battle currently playing out over efforts by the Ellison in question—David, son of Larry—to buy Warner Bros. on Thursday, when a plane displaying the banner flew over Ellison’s corporate home at Paramount. (Timed to a press conference from Neighbors For Strong Communities, a group that sends “AI-assisted” letters to California state officials in support of Paramount’s actions.) It arrived amid what’s proving to be a very messy fight, as Ellison swears as loudly as he can that his efforts to buy Warner Bros.—which got hastily greenlit by the Trump White House before running into an obstructing tangle of state attorneys general—won’t mean bending networks like CNN to the Ellison family’s political whims. The AGs, meanwhile, have put most of their focus on alleged antitrust concerns about the sale, which would see the number of major Hollywood studios drop to four, despite Ellison’s promise that the actual output of blockbuster movies won’t drop. (A promise that has lured guys like Tom Cruise and James Cameron into being full-throated supporters of the sale.)
But all of that is pretty hard to get on a banner—and probably obfuscates at least some of the political motivations at work here—which is presumably why the anonymous people who hired the plane went for something a little more succinct. (While also lightly self-censoring in a way that let outlets like Variety run their verbiage unaltered.) This latest post to the public message board we call the sky comes as Ellison is attempting to play hardball against the AG lawsuit, threatening to pull Paramount out of California entirely if state officials don’t back down and just let him have his $111 billion sale before extremely expensive deadlines start triggering in a couple of weeks.
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