A group of television fans based at Fans4Writers.com contracted with a skywriting service to spread a series of messages across the Pasadena sky in support of striking writers. The messages included "fans4writers.com," "Help A Writer Score," "Support The Writers" and "Save Your Shows."

The idea of a skywriting campaign began in November, when fans of "Battlestar Galactica" tossed around the idea of skywriting in support of the striking writers. The cost of the idea turned out to be prohibitive, but one of the companies the fans had contacted remembered the group when a client unexpectedly pulled out of plans to campaign over the Rose Parade route.

The company, Skytypers, also offered the group a discount, dropping the normal from about $20,000 to about $6,200. One of the fans offered to temporarily put it on her credit card, and the group has been raising funds for the event with a silent auction of signed scripts and other TV memorabilia.

However, it's not clear that the skywriting stunt had any real impact, either in person or in the media. There were a number of other protests planned for the event (most of them more political), and as you might expect, the networks broadcasting the parade ignored them all. And given that this stunt was directed in part at the networks themselves, it's not surprising that they opted for ignoring the planes and their message.

A little less easy to figure is why the event didn't get much traction online. Granted, it was thrown together somewhat at the last moment. But looking around late Monday evening, I could find few mentions of the plan either before or after the parade.

There was the expected mentions on UnitedHollywood.com (which is an unofficial strike blog), and a substantial post on Deadline Hollywood Daily. The press release announcing the plan also got a mention on the Variety strike blog and at a couple of other media outlets. But given the amount of effort that went into the plan, it didn't seem to really catch fire in any sort of viral way.

It didn't help that the fans4writers.com web site didn't exactly make details on the idea easy to find. Even Tuesday night, the front page of the site didn't have the info you would expect to see, such as a big screaming headline "Hey, we did it!" Instead, there was a link to a silent auction, which mentioned it was raising money for "extra special advertising campaign we are running on New Year's Day."

While TV fans and the members of the WGA continue to win the public relations battle, I'm not convinced that it matters in the long run. These type of stunts help keep the striking writers and their fans close, but they don't have much impact on the moguls.

What will ultimately have an impact is anything that directly affects the bottom line. If TV fans began talking about boycotting Disneyland, or Nickelodeon, the studios would be much more inclined to listen. Stunts like the skywriting exercise make everyone feel good, but it's tough to make them really matter, since the events are targeting the same big media companies which would normally be the most likely to cover the stunts.