Space advertising

Space advertising is the use of advertising in outer space or related to space flight. 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 visible from the Earth. Obtrusive space advertising is the term used for such ventures.

The launch of Soyuz TM-11 in 1990 carried Toyohiro Akiyama, a reporter for the Japanese television network Tokyo Broadcasting System. The network paid for his seat on the flight and its logo was featured prominently on the third stage of the Soyuz-U2 launch vehicle. The launch shroud was emblazoned with logos for Sony, Unicharm, and Otsuka Pharmaceutical.

The 1993 "Space Billboard" by the American company Space Marketing Inc. was a proposal for a 1 km² illuminated billboard that would be launched into a low orbit and be visible from Earth. The advertisement would be roughly the same apparent size and brightness as the moon and was to be made from sheets of mylar. It was estimated that it would be impacted by space debris 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 commercial by the Israeli company Tnuva, which was filmed aboard the space station Mir in 1997.

In an unusual form of fast food advertising, two Pizza Hut marketing ploys have involved spaceflight. In 2001 they were the first to deliver pizzas to outer space when their vacuum-sealed food arrived at the International Space Station, 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.

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