The Force Was Not Strong Enough To Convince The White House

When it comes to ‘Star Wars’ we have probably seen everything; so when we heard that 34,000 avid fans submitted a proposal to the President of the United States requesting he build a ‘Death Star’, we weren’t exactly surprised. In November 2012,  a petition was posted on the White House’s ‘We the People’ website, which allows anyone to set up a petition and promises to respond if the petition receives enough support.

Almost two months on, the White House has publicly declined building a planet-sized military battle station, disappointing a worldwide fan base. The White House issued an official response on their website stating ‘The Administration does not support blowing up planets’. The tongue in cheek response from Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space branch at the White House, let’s fans down gently. He states, ‘We don’t have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber an advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agent, which is supporting research on building Luke’s arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers’.

In 2012 we wrote a post about customer service and the power of a personalised approach, we have come to expect this from brands as the consumer; however the quirky and clearly thoughtful response from an American Government official was completely unexpected yet extremely valued. We at apt are glad to see this continued attitude in 2013, may the force be with us!