A 500-drone Candy Crush advertisement will be seen tonight over New York City

An unhappy Bat-Signal for annoying marketing. This tonight, 500 drones with lights attached will be dropped above New York City to create a massive floating advertisement for the Candy Crush app. (Source: Gothamist.

*powers on* pic.twitter.com/WEeo8RzQZn

— Candy Crush Saga (@CandyCrushSaga) October 24, 2022

According to Fernanda Romano, chief marketing officer at Candy Crush, the 10-minute choreographed performance, which has been planned to celebrate the game’s 10th anniversary, would “transform the sky into the largest screen on the earth.”
The drones will actually be launched from across the Hudson River in New Jersey but should be visible within a one-mile radius of Battery Park in lower Manhattan because the city’s Avigation regulations (which prohibit people from flying a single drone in NYC, let alone 500) prohibit flying in the city. Since drone use is also restricted in state parks in New Jersey, a special use permit was issued for the occasion. This is not the first drone light show in the region; a related display for the NBA draft in June of this year also made use of the same geographic flaw.

Last night, the first-ever drone light show in the New York metropolitan area flew over the Hudson River in celebration of the 2022 NBA Draft Presented by State Farm. pic.twitter.com/TBS58qAJcp

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) June 22, 2022

NYC isn’t exactly known for being a popular place to go stargazing because of its light pollution, but it’s understandable why some city residents are annoyed by a floating advertisement that effectively turns the sky into a commercialized billboard. State Senator Brad Hoylman said to Gothamist, “I think it’s terrible to be ruining our city’s skyline for private profit.” It is disrespectful to New Yorkers, to local regulations, to the general public, and to wildlife.

Concerns have been raised about how the aerial light show may affect the local wildlife, specifically the thousands of migratory birds it may affect. The Hudson is a crucial flyway for birds, and fortunately it has been dark, according to NYC Audubon’s Dustin Partridge, director of conservation and science. It is remarkable that they entered without considering the effects on the ecosystem and the birds who will be using the same airspace as those drones.