17.8.09

GTFOH

Space, the final frontier. Believe it or not, some people are investing time and money in technology that will allow for marketing in space. A company called Moon Publicity is working on a business model that would essentially sell media on the moon. Needless to say, this would trigger a serious outrage and we don’t anticipate seeing “space marketing” coming to life any time soon. Either way, it’s an amusing thought.

Remember the 1990s? Anything was possible, what with the birth of the Internet and the zooming economy. No wonder, then, that one company wanted to loft a 1-square-kilometer billboard into space, which would be as bright as the moon, while Pizza Hut toyed with the idea of burning its logo into the moon's surface.

The billboard was scuttled because space debris would have knocked it out of orbit (provided it could even get there); the Pizza Hut scheme died when the wild and crazy ad guys realized that 1. It's an offensive idea. 2. The logo would have to be as big as Texas.

Well, some fools never learn--or, at least, will never stop trying to make ads as annoying as possible. Moon Publicity claims to have invented (but not built) a lunar rover whose tracks would create enormous drawings in the moon's lunar dust. The company suggests that these drawings might include logos, domain names, memorials, portraits and even--God help us--the initials of your sweetheart.

Of course, there's no atmosphere on the Moon. The images would last well after your first divorce, and even well after out society has crumbled--that is, thousands of years. As David Kent Jones, the "inventor" says in a press release: "This new commercial incentive will turbo charge space technology development. Shadows are just the beginning; eventually robots will be planting crops on other planets."

He is, of course, happy to take your money in pursuit of this dream/nightmare. Through October 20th, the company is accepting bids for the branding rights to 44 lunar regions, starting at $46,000. (Can anyone actually claim the rights to a portion of the moon?)

Gizmodo wonders if it's only a matter of time until some fools pull something like this off. Personally, I hope I'm dead before then.

VIDEO HERE

Source - Fast Company

No comments: