Were those audience figures inflated?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not just figuratively, as was described in an article by Matt Ford on January 21, 2017 at The Atlantic titled Trump’s press secretary falsely claims: ‘Largest audience ever to witness an Inauguration, period.’ I mean literally inflated, as has sometimes been done to provide ‘extras’ in films before Computer-generated imagery (CGI) recently became inexpensive.

 

For example, an article at insider media limited on January 11, 2011 is titled Inflatable Crowd Company helps bring The King’s Speech to life. A more recent article at Ripley’s on December 9, 2016 is titled Inflatable crowds – Hollywood’s secret extras, and is accompanied by a brief YouTube video titled The Inflatable Crowd Company – Hollywood’s secret extras. There also is another brief YouTube video from November 5, 2012 by their competitor, Crowd In A Box. Crowd in a Box even sued The Inflatable Crowd Company, as described by Leslie Simmons at the Hollywood Reporter on October 23, 2007 in an article titled Judge dismisses crowd dummy case.

 

On October 1, 2021 I blogged about Inexpensive inflatable props for speeches, but did not include inflatable audiences there.