Social Media Users Mock U2 After Super Bowl Residency Ad Showed ‘Unidentified Object’
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U2 had people wondering if they had been fooled Sunday night after a Super Bowl ad promoting their Las Vegas residency featured giant spheres in space that resembled the Chinese spy balloon.
The world famous Irish rock band will kick off a series of dates at the newly opened MSG Sphere for an immersive show later this year.
It was promoted with a vague and confusing 15-second ad during Super Bowl LVII that didn’t show the band except for a brief silhouette.
The extended trailer shows reports of an “unidentified flying object” with a large silver sphere hovering in the air.
The social media reaction questioned whether the legendary rockers had been behind the Chinese spy balloons that were shot down by US and Canadian forces over the past week.
It’s not quite ‘bullet the blue sky’, but U2 had people wondering if they had been fooled Sunday night after a Super Bowl ad promoting their Las Vegas residency featured giant spheres in space.
U2 Confirm Upcoming Las Vegas Residency In Super Bowl Trailer
One writer bluntly suggested: “The US government has been tearing down advertisements for a U2 concert.”
An extended trailer for the concert was posted online, but most users reacted to what they had seen on the Super Bowl broadcast on Fox.
Another referenced a notorious piece from the band’s past, in which they put a copy of their Songs of Innocence album on every iPhone in the world.
“If the balloons have been just a U2 promo all this time, they’ve somehow managed to outdo themselves ever since they foisted their album on us with automatic release.”
Another posted a fake news update: “The U2 Baby Sphere has been shot down by an American fighter jet.”
One fan responded to the band, saying, “Okay, that’s the best marketing I’ve ever seen, it even fooled the military.”
One person praised the band’s marketing acumen: “If U2 actually created a viral marketing campaign that actually resulted in military action in US airspace, that’s the best thing that ever happened.”
U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at The Sphere will kick off in the fall of 2023, celebrating 30 years of the seminal album that featured hits like ‘One’ and ‘Mysterious Ways’.
The announcement comes just ahead of the band’s Songs of Surrender, a collection of 40 songs from U2’s back catalogue, re-recorded and re-imagined, due for release on Friday.
The residency will continue without drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who will undergo surgery and rehab.
“We’re going to need everything we’ve got to get close to the Sphere without our bandmate in the drum seat, but Larry has joined us in welcoming Bram van den Berg, who is a force in his own right.” U2 said in a statement. shared with US media.
In a rare moment of broad bipartisanship, the House voted 419-0 on Thursday to condemn China for flying a spy balloon over the United States.
The balloon was able to hover over the country for three days before being shot down on the east coast.
The measure was introduced by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul of Texas.
U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at The Sphere will kick off in the fall of 2023, celebrating 30 years of the seminal album that featured hits like ‘One’ and ‘Mysterious Ways’
The residency will continue without drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who will undergo surgery and rehab.
It required two-thirds support to pass and was able to win all the Democratic and Republican votes in a remarkable display of bipartisanship.
Republicans are also highly critical of President Joe Biden’s administration’s handling of the spy balloon, claiming that Americans should have been alerted to the balloon earlier and it should have been shot down immediately.
Republican leaders have also considered introducing a resolution to convict Biden for his handling of the spy balloon entering US airspace.
China has maintained its position that the ship was a weather balloon that went astray and not a “spy balloon” as alleged.
However, antennas and solar panels were found among the wreckage recovered from the balloon after it was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean last week, a US official said on Thursday.
The House voted 419-0 in a rare display of bipartisanship to condemn China over its spy balloon, shown here after the US military shot it down over the ocean near Surfside Beach, South Carolina.
The remains of the balloon were recovered after it was shot down into the ocean off the east coast of South Carolina. Among the rubble were antennas and solar panels, according to US officials
A State Department update shows that US intelligence has discovered that Beijing has a vast surveillance network spanning 40 countries.
The balloons, as a senior state official has now revealed, are capable of “conducting signals intelligence gathering operations,” which has been a violation of US sovereignty.
US intelligence has linked the programs directly to China’s main military force, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
So far, the only Republican who broke ground on the issue is Sen. Mitt Romney, who told CNN he thinks Biden made the right decision to wait to inform the public.
“I think the administration, the president, our military and intelligence agencies acted skillfully and carefully,” Romney said. “At the same time, its capabilities are extraordinarily impressive.”
He made the comments coming out of a classified briefing on China.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are considering introducing a resolution that would condemn Biden for his handling of the Chinese spy balloon fiasco.