Aerial Movie Promotion Puzzles Many Residents

The three-day aerial assault was set for the Memorial Day weekend, when the greatest number of people would jam Los Angeles and Ventura County freeways and beaches.

On both Friday and Saturday mornings, four olive-drab Jet Ranger helicopters towing 100-foot-long banners bewildered and frightened citizens from Ventura to Venice who turned their eyes skyward to read the terse but menacing messages.

“No Warning.” “No Negotiation.” “No Los Angeles.” “Independence Day.”

It was all part of a movie studio’s plot to promote an upcoming release, but viewers read their own meaning into the stunt.

A shadow fell over Sondra Phelps, a waitress at a Camarillo cafe, as the copters passed overhead and the black banners momentarily blocked out the sun.

“For a minute, I thought the Freemen were pullin’ something,” Phelps said.

After pondering the significance of the “No Los Angeles” banner, Kathy Mills, the cafe’s owner, said, “People who don’t live in L.A., don’t like L.A.”

Conversation stopped when a diner paying his bill ominously added, “Los Angeles is way less popular than Oklahoma City.”

Of course, the air campaign’s true target was never Uncle Sam, the San Fernando Valley or any of the other presumed subjects of the opaque communiques.

This was studio warfare, launched by Twentieth Century Fox to pique interest in “Independence Day,” a new sci-fi thriller to be released this summer.

The “no warning”-themed promotion foreshadows the worldwide alien invasion depicted in the film and the world’s united front to resist it.

As it happens, humankind--which includes actors Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid--comes together to fight back and save planet Earth on Independence Day.

Although informed that the banners were written by studio publicists, Regina Kaufman, a 40-year San Fernando Valley resident, still suspected they were intended as a veiled threat to independence-minded Valley residents.

“Are you sure it wasn’t some kind of warning?” asked Kaufman, who concluded its real meaning was: “Don’t secede or else.”