Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Spain:Crop Circle Was a Rum Ad

Source: Planeta UFO
Date: July 9,2008


SPAIN: Crop Circle Was a Rum Ad

A new brand of rum commissioned the creation of circles in the Vacarisses harvests for a marketing campaign, leading residents of this Barcelona community to think they had been chosen by aliens.

"We had no idea that we were in the cosmic center of the universe and suddenly they chose us!" Carles Canongia felt chosen by a superior or at least alien force when he learned that some strange propeller-shaped marks had appeared in his township.

His hopes turned to dust when he realized that the crop circles had been created by human hands. He then resigned himself to being chosen not by mischievous space beings, but by the residents of Vacarisses.

Canongia has been at the head of this Barcelonan township since 2007 since he headed the PSC ticket and won at the polls, bring four legislative cycles controlled by a local independent party to a close. Up to recently, he could boast a magnificent location (in the community of Valles Occidental, bordering on Bages and the Baix Llobregat) as well as a calm atmosphere whose peace was disrupted when [crop circles] drawn by an unknown hand appeared in the fields of Ignasi Gibert, one of the local residents.

"As mayor, I'm disappointed to learn that the signs were not alien in origin," admits the Catalonian magistrate, who had become accustomed to welcoming strangers to his town who sought for proof of a greater god, who turned instead, to the disgust of paranormal aficionados, to be the result of a production company hoping to shoot a commercial in the area.

Rumor in the town suggested a brand of beer, although bartenders professed having no knowledge of circles or aliens. Not even the bar at Estacion de Amores knew anything about it, although the mayor states that "many outsiders have come here because they believed it."

A newswire story claimed that the circle was real, when in fact [the alleged author] was Bacardi, a rum distillery endeavoring to promote its new beverage Seven Fiki, related to the Fiji Islands and the aforementioned crop circles. It has achieved its goal, given the repercussions that the story has had in the media and in weblogs.

Crop Circles are circular shapes that appear from one day to another and are not visible in plain sight. The first discoveries occurred in the mid 1990s in Southern England. Much like the one in Vacarisses, they are only visible from the air.

"In fact, we thought it was a prank by someone in the township," explains Canongia, who would like the not-so-mysterious circles to remain where they are to attract curiosity-seekers and tourists, although he suspects that owner of the field will remove them soon.

"We've dealt with the matter with certain merriment and good cheer," acknowledges the socialist mayor. It isn't the first time, he says, that commercials have been filmed in the area, since "we have a landscape and unique vistas of Montserrat." Furthermore, it isn't just circles that have drawn the interest of countless fans of the paranormal -- they have been visited for a long time by ufologists and skywatchers looking for unidentified flying objects.

"There is a legend that causes outsiders to gather in Montserrat once a month to see the UFOs that appear," admits Canongia, aware of the commotion that these abnormal revelations have caused in the town. "And we hope that the crop-circle-making aliens come back next year." A glass of rum in hand, one would think.

(Translation (c) 2008, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez and Juan B.)