Space, The Final Frontier
What do you know about space advertising and orbiting billboards? If you are like me you probably didn’t even know people were considering it. Well, good news friends I have all the information that you could ever want and in fact the story of space advertising is pretty interesting and if you think about it a very cool idea.
It Begins…
Space advertising is something that really came into its own as an idea in 1993 when a company named Space Marketing based out of Roswell, (go figure) Georgia wanted to launch a billboard into space in preparation for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The catch was that consumers would need special glasses in order to see the rings (the billboard was to have the Olympic Rings on them) and these glasses would come with purchase of certain products.
Let’s get a peek at just how big a “space billboard” might be. “Space billboards would range from about half the size of the moon to the full size of the moon,” reports the Federal Communications Law Journal. “[They] would be visible all the time or only during daylight hours (mainly adjacent to sunrise and sunset); could last from two weeks to one year to forever … [and] would operate in a low-Earth and sun-synchronous orbit with corporate sponsors having the final say as to their ‘exact’ locations.”
Space Marketing CEO Michael Lawson was quoted in a company news release as saying, “A tremendous opportunity [exists] for a global-oriented company to have [its] logo and message seen by billions of people on a history making, high profile vehicle.”
Obviously everyone was up in arms and space billboards are actually prohibited by law in an act passed by congress in 2000. What brought me to this story in the first place is that later this week an Ohio attorney will present a paper, “In Defense of Advertising in Space,” at the International Astronautical Conference. In his paper he is arguing that banning space advertising is completely unjustified and inhibits us from exercising our rights as free citizens to freedom of speech and print.
Here are my initial thoughts: IT’S BANNED!!!! In theory I would love to see billboards floating through space, it would bring us closer to the romanticized age of The Jetsons and certainly, like the CEO of Space Marketing says, would make history. But think of the billions of people that would see your advertisement floating around the earth. Imagine if it could change languages so that the country it is over at the time can get your message. Not only that, it would be a completely interactive ad. Imagine going to your telescope to find the newest ad in space, and the ad says something like “Find this first and win a million dollars, sponsored by Pepperjam” Very, Very interesting and I hope it is something that the ad industry is able to revisit and repeal the ban.
The negative side to all of this includes people whining about pollution of our natural resources and blah, blah, blah etc… (Just Kidding Folks!) Of course it is very important that we regulate it somehow, if it is ever to happen. Essentially what would happen is that everyone would try to outdo one another, as is human nature, to have the biggest and best attention grabbing billboard blocking out a lot of the sky and that, I will agree, is definitely a downside.
So if this idea of space advertising is ever to come to fruition it must be very exclusive, very expensive and have a time frame on how long the billboards can stay in space, a CPO (Cost Per Orbit) if you will. Regardless, it needs to be thought out and regulated in order for it to appeal and appease a great majority of the people if we are ever going to actually see it.
Here are some famous space advertising endeavors: (taken from AdAge.com)
1993: Arnold Schwarzenegger buys an ad on the side of a rocket to promote “Last Action Hero.”
1996: Pepsi pays Russia to float a can outside the Mir space station.
2000: Pizza Hut puts its logo on side of Proton rocket in Kazakhstan and delivers the first pizza to space.
2001: Lego promotes its “Life on Mars” set by sending it into space-along with 300 Lego aliens-on a Russian expedition.
2002: Pepsi considers giving away a ride on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and ‘N Sync’s Lance Bass looks for sponsors to pay his way. Both plans fizzle.
2006: A Russian astronaut is expected to whack a golf ball into orbit off the International Space Station as part of a promotion for Element 21, a golf-equipment manufacturer.
