Space advertising
Encyclopedia
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
in outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
or related to space flight
Space exploration
Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
. While there have only been a few examples of successful marketing campaigns, there have been several proposals to advertise in space, some even planning to launch giant billboards
Billboard (advertising)
A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...
visible from the Earth. Obtrusive space advertising is the term used for such ventures.
Attempts
The 1993 "Space Billboard" by the AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
company Space Marketing Inc. was a proposal for a 1 km² illuminated billboard that would be launched into a low orbit
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...
and be visible from Earth. The advertisement would be roughly the same apparent size and brightness as the moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
and was to be made from sheets of mylar. It was estimated that it would be impacted by space debris
Space debris
Space debris, also known as orbital debris, space junk, and space waste, is the collection of objects in orbit around Earth that were created by humans but no longer serve any useful purpose. These objects consist of everything from spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to erosion, explosion...
around 10,000 times; this and the inability to attract adequate funding prevented the project from progressing.
The first commercial filmed in space was a milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
commercial by the Israeli company Tnuva
Tnuva
Tnuva, or Tenuvah, is a cooperative in Israel specializing in milk and dairy products. The 620 members of the cooperative are made up a large number of kibbutzim and moshavim in Israel...
, which was filmed aboard the space station Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
in 1997.
In an unusual form of fast food advertising
Fast food advertising
Fast food advertising is the promotion of fast food products and ventures through a variety of media. Fast food advertising campaigns are not as highly regulated as some other products, such as those imposed on alcohol advertising, but there are often public calls for their promotion to be...
, two Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
marketing ploys have involved spaceflight. In 2001 they were the first to deliver pizzas
Pizza delivery
Pizza delivery is a service in which a pizzeria delivers a pizza to a customer. Delivery is normally made with an automobile, motor scooter, or bicycle.- Ordering :...
to outer space when their vacuum
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
-sealed food arrived at the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
, just a year after signing a deal to have a 30-foot (9 m) Pizza Hut logo placed on the side of the unmanned Proton rocket that launched Zvezda module. Kodak then paid to have their logo and a slogan placed onto a material that was to be tested for durability in space on the outside of the International Space Station.
The team White Label Space
White Label Space
White Label Space was formed in early 2008 by a group of experienced space professionals inspired by the challenge of the Google Lunar X PRIZE...
competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE
Google Lunar X Prize
The Google Lunar X PRIZE, abbreviated GLXP, sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, is a space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. It was announced at the Wired Nextfest on 13 September 2007...
plans to raise the money for its Moon mission from space advertising in the form of sponsorship by one or more large global brands.
Legislation
In 1993, faced with the Space Billboard project, U.S. Congressman Ed MarkeyEd Markey
Edward John "Ed" Markey is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1976. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes most of Boston's northern and western suburbs, such as Medford and Framingham. Markey is the Dean of both the Massachusetts and New England House delegations...
introduced a bill that banned all U.S. advertising in space. This was amended by Section 70102 of title 49 of the United States Code
United States Code
The Code of Laws of the United States of America is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal laws of the United States...
to only cover obtrusive advertising, thus allowing sponsorship deals where the logo is placed on the rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
or an astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
's clothing. Since May 2005 the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
(FAA) has been in charge of enforcing this law.
Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
is the other leading space flight country, and has accepted advertising on many of their missions (see Attempts above).
Criticism
Before the legislation was introduced there was a public outcry to reports of obtrusive space advertising plans. The problems caused for astronomyAstronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
due to light pollution
Light pollution
Light pollution, also known as photopollution or luminous pollution, is excessive or obtrusive artificial light.The International Dark-Sky Association defines light pollution as:...
, obstructed vision, and radio noise were quickly cited. The inability to easily avoid the advertisements was another great concern, with them being in sight whenever you are outside – all other forms of advertising can be turned off or removed somewhat easily. As large billboards would be visible for large distances it would also be impossible to make them visible to only one country.
Popular culture
Large billboards in space have been featured in several science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
books, films and television series, most notably the animated series Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
. They are usually shown as satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of commercialisation.
In Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.He had two sons: James Ross Brown and Linn Lewis Brown ....
's 1945
1945 in literature
The year 1945 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 1 - The magazine Ebony is published for the first time.*Noel Coward's short play, Still Life, is adapted to become the film, Brief Encounter....
short story, "Pi in the Sky," an inventor rearranges the apparent positions of the stars to form an advertising slogan.
In Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's 1951
1951 in literature
The year 1951 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.*Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus....
novella The Man Who Sold the Moon
The Man Who Sold the Moon
The Man Who Sold the Moon is a science fiction novella by Robert A. Heinlein written in 1949 and published in 1950. A part of his Future History and prequel to "Requiem", it covers events around a fictional first Moon landing, in 1978, and the schemes of Delos D...
the protagonist raises funds for his lunar ambitions by publicly describing means of covering the visible lunar face in advertising and propaganda, and then taking money not to do so.
In Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's 1958
1958 in literature
The year 1958 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*August 18 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in United States.*First volume of The Civil War by Shelby Foote is published....
short story Buy Jupiter
Buy Jupiter
"Buy Jupiter!" is a humorous science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the May 1958 issue of Venture Science Fiction Magazine, and reprinted in the 1975 collection Buy Jupiter and Other Stories...
, a group of extraterrestrials broker a deal with the governments of Earth to purchase the right to replace the planet Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
with a device in the size and shape of the planet that would generate advertisements to the starships from their worlds that passed by the planet.
A Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
novel features an advertising campaign whereby a ship is sent on a mission by The Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
Company to cause 128 stars to go supernova in order to visibly spell the words "Coke Adds Life!" across the sky on earth. The message is intended to last five weeks, and be visible even in daylight.
In an episode of Carmen Sandiego
Carmen Sandiego
Carmen Sandiego is a media franchise of educational computer and video games, television programs, books and other media featuring a thieving villain of the same name. The basic premise of the franchise lets the user or protagonists become agents of the ACME Detective Agency, who attempts to thwart...
's television show, she plans to launch rockets to transform the moon's face into the show's logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
.