Petition to turn Salesforce Tower into the Eye of Sauron on Halloween gains momentum

The
Eye of Sauron in “The Lord of the Rings.”
YouTube/Warner Bros

• An online petition to turn the Salesforce Tower into
  the Eye of Sauron on Halloween night is gaining
  momentum.
• In 15 hours since being published, the petition has
  received over 1,000 signatures from supporters of the
  idea.
• The top of Salesforce Tower has a screen made up of
  11,000 LED lights, displaying videos and other
  art. 
• The man in charge of the Salesforce Tower screen has
  ruled out doing holiday-themed displays — but he never said
  anything specifically about the Eye of Sauron.

Some 1,300 people have
signed a Change.org petition asking Salesforce CEO Marc
Benioff to turn Salesforce Tower, the software company’s San
Francisco skyscraper headquarters, into the Eye of Sauron on
Halloween night. 

For non-Lord of the Rings buffs, Sauron is the main antagonist in
J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” The Eye of Sauron
appeared to instill fear and let it be known that Sauron was
watching — something that would be appropriately spooky for the
occassion. 

The petition’s description is simple: “San Francisco = Mordor.
Salesforce Tower = Eye Of Sauron.” The petiton, created by one
Red Rainey, seems to have resonated with people: It took only 15
hours to garner those 1,300-plus signatures, and it’s still
rising. 

“Come on Mark [sic], have a sense of humor, this would
be awesome!!!” one supporter wrote.

Salesforce
Tower, looking out over the San Francisco Bay.

Cushman
& Wakefield

The recently opened, 61-story Salesforce Tower sports 11,000 LED
lights atop its exterior, illuminating the top six floors with
videos programmed by artist Jim Campbell and his team. At night,
the
light show can be seen from 20 miles away.

In
an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle before his
installation went live in May, Campbell said his art would never
contain advertisements or do holiday-themed display. 

“I’m not going to do a bulletin board, ever,” he said. “I’m not
going to do red-and-green Christmas lights.”

He did not, it should be noted, explicitly say that the Eye of
Sauron is off the table. 

Another thing to note: This would only be the latest connection
between Sauron and the world of tech.

Palantir, the secretive data-mining startup cofounded by Peter
Thiel, got its name from a magical artifact used by Sauron to
communicate with his evil forces and spy on their enemies. Palmer
Luckey, the cofounder of Facebook’s Oculus VR unit, also appears
to be a “Lord of the Rings” fan — his
border security startup, Anduril, is named after hero
Aragorn’s enchanted sword. 

Representatives for the Salesforce did not immediately
return a request for comment.