The Strange History of Advertising In Space
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- Опубликовано: 2 фев 2024
- Astrobotic's recent lunar mission had a few advertising partnets, Pocari Sweat and DHL were the most visible, and while many people expressed surprise at this, they were even more surprised to find out this kind of thing has been going on for over 30 years.
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I am far from superstitious but I wouldn't want a DHL sticker on something that needs to arrive on time and intact.
Here in USA my experience with DHL is pretty poor.
I am pretty sure it's in their terms in conditions.
I think it's just funny cause in germany they adverstise as logistic experts and then send me 4 emails on 4 days that it couldn't be delivered today and then lose the package on the fith day@@goldgeologist5320
DHL is by far the worst courier in the United States. I think they’re the bees knees in Europe though.
obvious joke
In Germany DHL for the most of the time is very reliable (together with prime) however when it comes to Hermes…dear Lord. I’m not religious person but if my package is being delivered with Hermes I always start praying 😂
"I threw up in my mouth a little," is definitely not a good ad slogan for a soft drink.
0:55 "Unfortunately they ended up delivering stuff back into the Earth's atmosphere and burning it up" So... Standard DHL service?
Most talented DHL deliveryman:
The moment he mentioned it... I heard some voice in my head singing: "Return to sender, adress unknown, no such number..." 😂
Yep " standard service "
DHL: We threw it in the creek!
Your package was thrown in or around a creek several blocks from your home at 4:20 yesterday morning. Thank you for using DHL.
I think we can all agree that NASA rockets should have a bumper sticker that states, "We brake for nobody"
Unless it has a lander. Then it would say "We brake for air."
Spaceballs
@@wilmanman7783 merchandising!
I think "In thrust, we trust" is a better one
😆
Fun detail in C-64 game from -80's called Mercenary: one item to collect from spacestation is "Essential 12939-supply" aka Pepsi.
I played this on the CPC 464, had a lot of fun in it.
12939... nice!
An important fact about this is it used vector graphics and no hidden line removal, so, you could read 12939 from the opposite side, mirroring the text and making PEPSI obvious.
That one took me a minute!
(Type 12939 on a seven segment display e.g. calculator.)
This reminds me of an old joke: Reagan assistant is entering the Oval Office and says:
- Mr President, the Russians started painting moon red. Should we do something?
-No, replies Reagan and returns to reading some paper.
Assistant returns in some time and says:
- they painted the half of the moon red already! Shouldn't we intervene?
- No, says the president calmly and returns to his papers.
Assistant comes for the 3rd time and reports: Mr President, they painted the whole moon red.
- Good, answers Reagan, now send our boys and paint Coca-Cola over it.
I remember another one from the end of cold war era.
Yeltzin's assistant entering to his office.
-Mr President, The Coca Cola company asks if it's possible to change the russian flag back to the red one.
- I don't mind, but first find out when our contract with Aquafresh ends.
I was going to comment the same joke but you beat me to it.
You forgot Elon put an entire Tesla in space... Probably the most thunderous ad in space ever 😂
came to comments to say this
Oh, I thought that was just rubbish disposal.
@@pattheplanter well, two years ago you thought he was great, so think back to when they told you to like him. They you will understand the humor. And thanks for the inflation
@@jamescollier3 You are mistaking me for someone else, I have always disliked Musk. You listen to influencers? How sad for you.
It would be useful to see an image of the bright red roadster and Ken doll, it might be indicative of x.
"If I look up into the sky at night and see a McDonalds ad, I'm becoming a terrorist"
- Isaiah Markin
😂
Same
Now if its Kentucky Fried Chicken that is alright.
Placing a billboard in space to annoy all of humanity is a casus belli in my book.
😂
The famous movie "2001: A Space Odyssey", portraying in year 1968 the world as it would be in the year 2001: Both the US and the USSR had their bases on Luna, with a common Space Station. The flights from Earth to Luna, and the shuttle services on Luna itself, aren't a prerogative of any government, but of... Pan Am.
At the time, Pan Am - with their blue logo and white hats - did good business and was the unofficial US flag carrier, and nothing would indicate that, about 22 years later - in 1991 - it would cease operations. Pan-am was the most evident advertising job in the movie.
And maybe, the UK Dorchester Hotel, in a room with two statues reconstructed from the memories of David Bowman...
and don't forget Hilton or the AT&T videophone!
Also Howard Johnson's for the restaurant.
Parcel tracker: "Your package has been delivered" - picture of fireball curving back to Earth. Well, it makes difference from a picture of some unknown other front doorstep.
I mean, is it really considered "delivered" if someone hasn't had a chance to kick a dent in it along the way?
* Picture of package being enthusiastically received by an entire raccoon *
They should have known about the wet burps. The first few Apollo crews drank fuel cell water that had dissolved hydogen gas, causing GI distress. A Pd-Ag hydrogen separator solved the problem on Apollo 12 onwards.
For some very early humorous takes on advertising in space, check out two stories by iconic Sci-fi writers Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick. Asimovs' contribution is 1958's "Buy Jupiter" and Dick's contribution is 1954's "Sales Pitch". Both written before space travel became a thing.
The Man Who Sold the Moon - Robert Heinlein.
4:15 "never seen anyone vomit quite so much" Poor guy!
But honestly I spend the next few minutes laughing about it, almost sounds like the cosmonauts was both scared and impressed 😆
The cosmonauts had never seen so much vomiting? Of course, they didn't have the habit of flying soviet deputies (congressmen) on joyrides.
Bad enough you can’t go walking anywhere on earth without tripping over discarded Coke and Pepsi cans, now they’re throwing giant ones away in space.
DHL promising the moon and ending up as a shriveled husk isn't THAT new..
There is also the question of whether commercial products being used in space constitutes as advertising. Certainly Hassleblad's reputation wasn't hurt by supplying cameras for NASA... even if NASA had to heavily modify them to work with the space suits.
Well, that's basically the line walked by a lot of modern "influencers", isn't it? If they're endorsing a product they genuinely find useful, it's perceived a lot differently to "they paid me to advertise this load of crap".
@@simongeard4824 I think its pretty clear that if you have a massive following and you show a product on your page, it's an advertisement because A: everything they do is a commercial, and B: regardless of whether they are getting "paid" the real reason they are doing that is because they hope to get a case of it in the mail. Influencer culture is 300000% commercial and fake (regardless of how "authentic" everyone thinks they are) and you cannot convince me otherwise.
@@simongeard4824 weird. I responded to this and now my response is gone. YT is either very broken or very weird these days.
@@patreekotime4578Copy stuff to your notes before you post it, and check back after ~30 seconds, if it's still there, then good. If it isn't, then edit it to remove language that advertisers might not approve of and try again.
I'm glad there are no ads on the Scott Manley RUclips channel!
Use an ad blocker; you won't see ads anywhere.
Unrelated, I've got a strange craving for a nice cold Starbase Brewing full-flow staged-combustion-cycle pilsner.
@@Skorpychan
Lots of Yo Tubbies channels have adds IN the video. No ad blocker stops those.
@@EthelredHardrede-nz8yv Not sponsored content, no, but I don't see any ads inserted by youtube.
They can't stop me from skipping through their promotions, though, and if they try I'll simply drop their channel.
@@Skorpychan
It is still advertising. Some channels DO have special advertiser sponsored videos. Most that have sponsors have them their regular videos.
man if I looked up into the night sky and saw an ad spelled out by satellites I'd personally invent a backyard anti-satellite laser
already should to get rid of the internet sats
@@y2kkmac Did an internet sat hurt your family? Last time I checked they are helping bring good internet to rural people which to me far outweighs the negative of it maybe ruining some astronomy stuff.
Heinlein was already exploring ideas for commercialisation of space in his 1950 novella "The Man Who Sold the Moon", including engineering competition between the fictional Moka Coka and 6+ brands to raise funds.
The point being, "6+" was a small enough slogan to fit on the Moon.
And rather than working out the logistics of painting the company logo on the moon, he got both companies to pay him _not_ to paint the rival company’s logo.
@@pwmiles56The whole Coke vs Pepsi thing had nothing to do with it.
@@donsample1002 But 7-up definitely did
“+9”
Missed the opportunity for the sign to say This Space For Rent 😂
I almost forgot there's a real gnome easter egg out there in space
Rumor has it that if someone can find the gnome in space and bring it back to Earth, Valve will finally make Half-Life 3 but not before that happens.
@@CStone-xn4oyValve Gnome-quest: the ultimate ARG.
No mention of the biggest space advert.......Space TESLA!!
I think I remember an Arthur C Clarke short story where a moon mission squirts vaporized sodium out of the moons shadow and the 'curly letters of a well known brand of soft drink' fluoresce across the moon being clearly visible from earth. Still waiting for that.
I remember that, thought it was neon to give the appropriate red colour.
And another story Heinlein or maybe Colin Kapp where the stranded astronauts in a grain ship essentially brewed beer as a propellant.
Yep, referencing a cola that came in a "distinctive wasp-waste bottle," i.e., definitely Coke. And the poor commander of the ship that brought that particular experiment was so shamed by it happening on his watch that now, instead of his favorite cola, he'll only drink beer when he goes out -- and he hates beer!
"Watch This Space" from Venture to the Moon.
Yes, I was just about to mention that one! It must’ve been one of his very early ones, I read it in a collection of his short stories.
@@Oldtanktapper "Watch this Space" was the fifth of a six part "Venture to the Moon" series published in 1956. I read that in the collection titled "More than One Universe" first published in 1991.
Missed an opportunity to talk about the Tesla! I know it wasn't an ad necessarily but definitely a unique commercial payload.
That entire gig was certainly an advertising stunt. I am also surprised he didn't mention it.
I forget the title, but one of Arthur C Clarke's early short stories was about an advertising coup where a rocket experiment was illicitly modified to eject a liquid (molten sodium perhaps?) through a nozzle to produce a large glowing C**a Cola sign visible from the surface in the night sky. The perpetrator was well paid of course.
It makes sense when you think about the physics of it, but it never occurred to me that burping would be problematic in zero G. Even when consuming plain water and regular space food, you'd have to be careful not to swallow too much air.
Hasselblad during Apollo was very apparent. And Nikon is apparent anytime they show the ISS crew taking pictures or video
A lot of other comments saying you "forgot" about the tesla in space but considering space x is entirely commerical and musk partially owns both its not especially remarkable and I'm not surprised you left it out.
Cola that makes you vomit though, that's the stuff!
Chinese private launch service seems to always have a lot of advertisement sponsor. The recent Gravity-1 launch have HLA a clothing brand logo on them. Recent CAS Space Kinetica-1 also launch cup noodle into space as well. I think there was once Galactic Energy Ceres-1 rocket launch with bank advertisement.
Woops my mistake CAS Space is just “commercial” company rather than private company. But it show that even government related launch service still do advertisement.
I thought the first commercialism in space was Spaceballs The Lunchbox, Spaceballs The Breakfast Cereal, and Spaceballs The Flamethrower...the kids love that one... 😉
Reminds me of the movie, "The Astronaut Farmer". He needed funding so he went around his town to get sponsorships, including Dunkin' Donuts. Great movie and great scene. Worth a watch.
Yesss, I love the Gnome Chompski reference at the end. You are correct, he was in HL2 Ep 2. There was an achievement to pick him up at the start and carry him the whole way through the game and launch him on the rocket at the end.
Talking about NASA and its lack of advertising. I work for a NASA supplier and NASA uses our products in several ways. Getting permission from NASA to use even the NASA worm or meatball in an advertisement saying that our products are used by NASA is nigh on impossible. Just a press release that our product was being used in a new way took several months. But I guess that makes sense, you don’t want NASA astronauts flight suits looking like a NASCAR driver.
Thanks. I wish I could pin your post to the top since so many people are confused by thinking that NASA using an off-the-shelf commercial product means they are advertising it.
Thank you! That is an acute distinction.@@bbartky
Omega made of lot of watch sales for the Speed Master that they would have never made if it hadn't been used as the official issued watch of NASA astronauts.
Difference is, Omega advertised BECAUSE they were in space and the moon and contributed to mission success (Apollo 13). Pepsi and the others have nothing to do with spaceflight
Shooting down orbital advertising seems like one of the best reasons to have anti-satellite weapons. 🤦♂️
I love Pocari Sweat. Nothing like it to bring you back to life after a rough night. Probably one of my favorite discovered products while sailing the indo-pacific.
1:05 well that's about what I've come to expect from DHL, the deliverymen who have never once actually found my house for some reason.
If they want it to land safely, maybe don't put a DHL sticker on it.
Don't forget the Fisher space pen!
Uhh Scott you forgot the biggest Advertising Rocket of...Well the history. The Tesla on the Falcon Heavy!
That's the one I was waiting for 🏎️
Shaun the Sheep was both a more stylish ad and a better product.
"They weren't supposed to be big on money-making commercialism, but they needed the money." I'm reminded of something A. Whitney Brown once said on SNL just after the breakup of the USSR: "Whoever thought that the fatal flaw of communism would turn out to be that there's no money in it."
For a fun foreshadowing of the "Cola War" decades before it happened, read Heinlein's 1949 novel "The Man Who Sold The Moon." The main character (D.D. Harriman who is essentially a P.T. Barnum type character) convinces "Moke Cola" that "6+" is planning to turn the Moon into a giant billboard for their soda, and vice versa. Thus, he convinces both to fund his plan to prevent that from happening. Without giving too much of the plot away, he does similar fear mongering with nations and other industries.
I didn't know I needed to know the physics of buoyancy and surface tension in soda in space, but that's cool af.
Maybe not Scott's demographic but the Axiom Zero-G indicator is a 'build-a-bear' astronaut. That must have involved some serious money to get that included.
As a die-hard valve fan, the gnome in space made me SO happy.
Sapporo has a brand of beer called Sapporo Sweat. Not sold outside of Japan that I recall seeing.
Recall some sci-fi movies with brands on the spaceships (2001 (PanAM), Silent Running* (American Airlines), others...)
*Bought the DVD a few years ago expecting the marvel I saw as a kid only to cringe at Dern's acting.
We'll always have his sister at least...
Daughter!
@@patreekotime4578 I stand corrected - at least he got that right.
@@AlanTheBeast100 🤣
Can't believe you forgot to mention the Tesla Roadster :D
“And the paper would like to know who’s shirt you wear…” 🎶🎵
Google it.
AMAZING!!!
i love you and your videos, mr Scott!!!
Kinda surprised SpaceX hasn't turned their payloads, launch vehicles, and mobile landing pads into giant billboards for sale.
Tang was mentioned many times in the 60s
Not that it was commercial, but during the rendezvous of Gemini VII and Gemini VIA in December 1965, signs were held up.
"At one point, Schirra, who was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy along with Lovell and Stafford, held up a sign in the capsule window that read, “Beat Army,” referencing a 7-7 tie in the annual Army-Navy Game that year. Borman, a no-nonsense graduate of the U.S. Army’s United States Military Academy at West Point had the last laugh. “Frank Borman topped me, though, darn it, if you’ll remember that,” Schirra recalled in an oral history. “He said, ‘Look at that sign. It says, “Beat Navy.” The heck it does!”
Great video, Scott...👍
I can't believe you didn't mention Tang. I always related that to space flight.
And Space Food Sticks.
There's a Tesla Roadster still in space. Probably the most iconic 'ad' ever launched
Tang. It’s what the Astronauts drink.
“Wet Burp” sounds like a band name 😂
I just saw the photo in your thumbnail from ares67's NSF threads about shuttle missions! (ran into some Jordin Kare music mentioned, too). Those threads are a history gold mine
I have said since 1980 that the space shuttle should have rented out space like NASCAR. Sticker up that shuttle or rockets and offset some costs.
Well, I had no idea! Now I do. Thank you, Scott!
Thanks, Scott for this nugget of advertising history.
Immediately made me think of Red Dwarf. COKE ADDS LIFE!
Lots of interesting stories but I can't believe you didn't talk about NASA and Tang.
Don't forget about Tang in the 1960s!
"Unfortunately, they ended up delivering stuff back into the Earth's atmosphere and burning it up." Actually, I think this is pretty on-brand for DHL.
Reminds me of this old space race era joke: "Apollo 11 to Houston. The Ruskis made it to the moon first ... and they are painting it red!" After a few moments: "Houston here. Do you have white paint on board?" - "Yes?" - "Wait until they are done and then write Coca-Cola on it."
What! No mention of musk/Tesla? Elephant in the room Scott! Thx for the great history lesson. Appreciate all you do.
I had to laugh about the DHL logo on the Peregrine moon lander.
DHL once again had failed to deliver to the correct address and lost the package.
When ordering anything online I make sure they are not the shipper.
Bring back the Tang commercial.
One of the Best parts of This video is that there were NO ADS!
9:50 "pie in the sky"
Funny you should mention that. For your younger viewers, there's an old sci-fi story that had a different take on space advertising: "Pi in the Sky" by Fredric Brown. It appeared in "Thrilling Wonder Stories v26 n03 [1945-Winter]" and that magazine can be read on the Internet Archive.
Yet another take on space advertising: "Buy Jupiter" by Isaac Asimov.
And I'm sure there were others.
Scott keeps a straight face talking about product placement whilst wearing a Starbase Brewing t-shirt next to a Starbase Brewing print… 😂🍻
What about Tang? I remember a lot of TV commercials for that during the Apollo missions.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the time that Oceaneering, who supplied the tool chest managed to persuade them to lease rather than buy, which meant they could put a huge Oceaneering logo on it. They then had a great press shot of the shuttle payload bay , with the earth above and the logo very prominent
As you already touched upon, "Art in Space" is another similar topic....
E.g. the "cosmic dancer on the mir space station" in 1993, there are videos of it on RUclips.
Pocari Sweat is a Gatorade minus the sugars. Very popular in Asia and the Middle East.
Gatorade now sells a Gatorade minus the sugar. Its awful... not the least because some flavors require a sweet component to make them recogmizable. Turns out if you take the sweet component out of orange flavor and add salt, you get... bloody mary mix. Which... would be fine if that is what you are expecting, but not when you expect orange.
@@patreekotime4578 Well we Pocari does not taste great, a bit salty and a spritz of citrus. We drink it because its usually well above 110-120F 45-50C, humidity 80%, so you drink what keeps you alive other than plain water.
@@SarahKchannel Sure. But Americans just want sugar water with magic health benefits. 🤣 And honestly, we want to eat stuff that will kill us faster but also to have the delusion that its healthy.
Plenty of decent shots of Star BaseBrewing Company too!
Yes, the concept and the names for their "Martian" brews are pretty hilarious. Considering what Scott said about the effects of gravity on carbonation, they may have to give that idea a slight revision considering Mars' lower gravitational field. All in all, the fact that some products we consume on Earth are disgusting or inedible in space is a fascinating topic and means we can't assume that all products are directly transferable.
This made me remember a part in Red Dwarf (I think the novel) where the Nova 5 is doing all this stellar engineering and it turns out the point is to set off all these stars to go nova timed to be visible from Earth to spell out "Coke Is Life," I think.
Anyway, let's hope we never hit that point of nihilism.
Maybe it's traveling gnome from Amelia movie :)
Speaking of burping in space, could an astronaut, before burping, do a small push, like a jump so thay the liquids go to the bottom of the stomach? Kind like what happens when rockets relight their engine in microgravity? Btw, nice Flipper Zero back there!
Thinking of the conversation "why are you bouncing up and down?" "Ullage".
Pocari Sweat isn't fizzy. It's the perfect space drink. It got electrolytes
Imagine seeing a gigantic advertisement in the skies i the middle of the night... It would ruin astronomy. 😬
Thanks, Scott!
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
In the 1960's NASA promoted TANG as an astronaut drink on every flight and which was also promoted to the general public.
TANG can still be purchased, but the NASA and astro connection has been forgotten.
A fictional example of Space Advertising comes from the BBC TV Series Red Dwarf
Lister, Cat, and Rimmer find the robot Kryten caring for the desiccated corpses of a ship's crew who were tasked with triggering a succession of Super Nova explosions that, when seen from Earth, all take place at the same time and depicting a product logo
Slight correction. The makers of Tang promoted it, not NASA so it doesn’t qualify for Scott’s video. NASA did say the astronauts drank it but that really doesn’t count as promotion since NASA was never paid by the makers of Tang to do so.
@@bbartky Thank you for the additional details and correction, it's been about 50 years since.
Good ol’ Gnome Chompski 🚀
(Getting him through the vehicular sections is a right pain in arse)
those two cans are pretty neat, seen them in a museum. cokes was pretty overengineered, it was a bag pushed out by a nitrogen cartridge.
I remember “Tang” and “Space Food Sticks” - “the food of the astronauts” from 60s advertising. 😂
Important note about golfing in orbit. "In space, nobody can hear you say 'Mulligan'."
And pens. Fisher space pens.
I was searching the comments for Tang & SFS.
I don't think SFS actually WENT to space. Tang MIGHT have.
Tang was perfect for early spaceflight. It was dry (and lightweight) and could be easily rehydrated like MANY of the early foodstuffs.
I vaguely "remember" it being touted as the "official drink of astronauts".
Whether that's true or not will need some clarifying.
I know my Dad *loved* the stuff, and was a huge space fan.
They had the iconic orange flavor, but they also had GRAPE flavor for a while.
@@josephmelnick3446 According to Wikipedia, a "modified" version of Space Food Sticks were tested on Skylab 3. Tang was used quite a bit; almost every reference to "orange drink" is Tang.
@@josephmelnick3446 So I did a little searching.
Tang was invented in 1959, but was a market penetration failure until it was used by NASA astronauts in flight for about a decade starting in 1965.
These days, it is still an ongoing product, but apparently it is big in Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and the Philippines.
shooting things into space is still expensive enough that no company in the USA has lobbied to change the rules. For far less than the cost of a satellite and rocket launch a company can get more impact with a few ads during the Super Bowl at least when talking US audiences. Also the SB is the one time people actually watch the commercials.
I seem to remember a sci-fi proposal years ago where the surface of the moon could be used as a screen to project Pepsi or Coke logos onto it.
I am surprised there isn't more of this. Seems like a great way to offset some of the cost of going to space. You would think any major launch where there would be interest from a lot of people then an ad would be on the side of the rocket.
2:09 *"One giant sip for mankind"* now this is golden 😂
The first ocean launch of the Long March 11 has a liquor advertisement on the side of the launch tube if I remember right.
Wasn’t there a commercial with Tang? The orange drink thing in the 60s?
Hello Scott,
May 1958....Buy Jupiter and other stories....Isaac Asimov...
Cordialement,
DHL: returned to sender
NASA using an off-the-shelf commercial product does _not_ mean they are advertising it, as Scott points out how NASA uses devices made by Apple does not mean NASA is advertising them. NASA buying commercial products like Tang, Hasselblad cameras, Fisher pens, etc. does not mean they are advertising them since they were never paid by the manufacturers to do so. If the manufacturers wanted to advertise that NASA uses their products they were free to do so but that would be done without NASA’s involvement.
In the novelization of Red Dwarf, the Nova 5 was one of several interstellar spacecraft on a commercial mission to send carefully selected stars into supernova at the same apparent time from Earth so they read in blinding brightness, "Coke adds life!" It cost the same as the US military budget throughout history, though a marginally better way of blowing the money.
Old Hungarian joke about space advertising from the 1980s:
An aid runs into the white house:
- Tell the president the Russians are painting the moon red.
- OK, don't worry
A day later the guy comes again
- Tell the president the Russians have already painted half the moon red.
- OK, no problem.
Next day the guy comes back in a panic
- Tell the president the Russians have painted the moon completely red.
- OK, get the NASA guys up there and let them paint Coca-Cola over the red circle.
Commercial spaceflight just gained a whole new meaning 💀
Don’t forget Tesla and Falcon Heavy!!
HL2 - Well remembered 😁