Space Advertisements

Various companies have filmed ads in space or engaged in space-related promotional activity:

• Commercial for Radio Shack, Popular Mechanics publicity shot ($100,000), Pizza Hut (confirms that the whole ISS package was less than $2.3 million or so) and other recent deals at "Russia Takes the Lead in Space Age Advertising", Space.com, 31 May 2001.
• Beef Jerky Promotion Delivered to Space Station, SPACEandTECH Digest, 28 May 2001. Does not seem like a big dollar deal; note the offer of $1000 and how they eventually flew free (apparently).
• 2001: Pizza hut continues their ISS promotions: Pizza Hut Delivers, SPACEandTECH Digest, 28 May 2001.
• 1999: Pizza Hut buys an ad on the side of a Proton launcher for about $1 million: "Pizza Hut buys rights to put logo on Russian rocket", Florida Today Space Online, 30 Sep 1999 and "Pizza Hut in Space", SpaceViews, 1 Oct 1999.
• 1999: Mir commercial for the More.com online drugstore. "Mir Crew Approaches the End", SpaceViews, 24 Aug 1999.
• 1998: "Mir cosmonauts pitch pens on U.S. television", 8 Feb 1998. Live appearance on QVC shopping channel. Says that some money went to the Russian Space Agency but doesn't disclose the amount.
• 1997: "Russian cosmonaut films milk ad on Mir space station", Florida Today Space Online, 21 Aug 1997. The figure of $450,000 for the ad is mentioned, although it is not clear to me whether that includes the fee for the Russian Space Agency or not.
• 1996: Final Frontier Beef Jerky was trying to film an ad on Mir.
• 1996: Coke and Pepsi both have space promotion efforts (Coke on shuttle, Pepsi on Mir). According to "Coke, Pepsi take cola wars to space", Florida Today Space Online, May 16, 1996, Coke has spent more than $750,000 on their effort (which according to them and NASA is real research as well as promotion). According to "Pepsi-Cola and bottling partners launch $550 million assault on russian soft drink market", Pepsi news release, 25 Apr 1996, they are spending $550 million on Russian marketing over 5 years (obviously their space ad is only one part of that). According to "Pepsi goes one up on Coke in space", Florida Today Space Online, May 22, 1996, it is a "seven-figure deal" between Pepsi and the Russian Space Agency. According to "Pepsi Teams Up With Russian Space Agency," Spaceviews, May 1996, Pepsi "is considering plans ranging from orbital billboards to sponsorship of a manned lunar landing" (presumably such consideration was at an early stage). Apparently the ad filmed on Mir was aired for the September 1997 MTV Music Awards, according to "Pepsi Blue", Adbusters Magazine, Winter 1998.
• 4 Sep 1996: MTV's Music Awards show had an interview with the Mir cosmonauts, according to Florida Today Space Online, 5 Sep 1996. No word on financial arrangements.
• About 1993: Columbia pictures was going to pay $500,000 for an ad on the side of the rocket on the first Conestoga launch. However, the deal was cancelled when the launch date kept slipping--schedule reliability is important for advertising so that one can coordinate with larger promotional campaigns (CSTS, section 3.10.3.3.3, page 374 and section 3.10.3.6.2, page 377).

  An interesting alternative to paint or decals would be to project an image onto the launcher with lighting. Rockets lit up at night are fairly spectacular and this alternative would require few if any design changes or payload penalties for the launcher itself (I saw this suggestion on sci.space.policy, Jan 1998).

• About 1960. I heard a rumor which went: "Dan Delong passed on a story from Ernst Stuhlinger- around 1960, representatives from Coco-Cola met with Von Braun and asked how much a Jupiter rocket cost- $15 million, Von Braun replied. The Coke guys looked at each other and said, fine, we'll take one [to paint it as a Coke bottle; NASA said no]". Anyone have a more reliable source for this story? Has it been published?

One can imagine launch viewings being an attraction, perhaps somewhat the way that corporate boxes at sports events are. Schedule reliability an issue, obviously. This is done on a small scale by space companies for their employees; another example is a government one, "Delta rocket carries special significance for servicemen", Florida Today Space Online, September 13, 1996.

The leading company in setting up space advertising deals is Space Marketing, Inc. See CSTS, section 3.10.4.4, page 380, or "Mir Watch", Spaceviews, July 1, 1996.

Space Billboards

Another category is space billboards (e.g. inflatable corporate logos visible for a few weeks before they reenter), space fireworks, etc. CSTS, section 3.6.5.3.1, page 262, has some good ideas about various sorts of displays that one might devise (synthetic auroras, artificial meteor showers, etc). Haven't seen any careful analysis of costs (CSTS, section 3.6.5.3.3, page 263 makes no attempt to estimate how many people could see a display, and how that would affect what customers are willing to pay). Astronomers are concerned about light pollution; for example see "The Star of Tolerance", International Dark-Sky Association Newsletter, No. 25 (September 1995), and there may be public opposition based on more general grounds too.

Circa 1993 there was vocal opposition in the US Congress to proposed space billboards; see for example the Congressional Record, volume 103, page S7759 (23 Jun 1993), pages E1732-E1734 (1 Jul 1993), and pages E2862 (10 Nov 1993). As far as I know no legislation resulted from this and the issue dropped off the radar screen because there were no serious proposals for space billboards in subsequent years. The furor was a response to a trial balloon (no pun intended) by Space Marketing Inc. of Roswell, GA, USA.