That's also my direction of thought, Bearb8. I can make up the following possible explanations for the ads:
- The ads didn't have any specific purpose, but where just a trial balloon.
- They intended to follow up with something, but some problems got in the way and delayed everything. Could be the sputter machine, could be something else.
- They intended to follow up with something, but something incredibly beneficial got in the way and inhibited the originally planned follow-up for some reason, e.g. a request for secrecy by a (possible) partner. This would also explain the abrupt, but #exciting BNN cancellation.
Any more conspiracy theories? ;-)