First Company Logo Visible From Space

Albert Sandberg writes, "KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) has created the first logo that is visible from space. The construction was made by 65,000 1x1-foot tiles and covers about 2 acres. The logo was built and assembled over about a month and is located in the Nevada desert near Area 51. The article also has a short video showing the construction in time-lapse. Now the aliens know where to get their slimy food :-)"

That's a bad idea...

KFC = Klingon Fried Crispy

Re:That's a bad idea...

And now when an alien civilization takes pictures from outer space and discover 'the face on earth' they will know for absolutely sure that there is no intelligent life on this planet.

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Lionel Barrymore played a wonderful Kentucky Colonel opposite Shirley Temple's "Little Colonel." I try to recall that anytime I see the KFC logo.

Re:That's a bad idea...

You are aware that most Google Earth images are from aerial photographs and not orbiting satellites?

Re:That's a bad idea...

But they will now it can shred.

Is this English?

Re:That's a bad idea...

the undeniable draw of a bucket of extra crispy

My wife calls them "Matrix Chickens", and claims that KFC grows them in a warehouse without heads or feet. The cut-off neck and legs are used to inject whatever hormones and nutrition needed to grow the "chicken" body. I'm not sure if thats exactly how it happens, but I ate at a KFC not too long ago, and something is seriously wrong with their food. She's on to something. Video at 11 :)

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The only thing I can say is that this is one of the most depressing days of my life.

I'm speechless. :(

Re:That's a bad idea...

Drat! I've been saving white tiles for 20 years to build a giant toilet. Now these guys steal my thunder with a Colonel Panic.

KFC = Kentucky Fried Chicken

I thought this one sentance at the end of TFA was quite interesting:

KFC has also now reintroduced the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken" into their marketing materials.

"Kentucky Fried Chicken" was changed to KFC back in 1991!

You may or may not have heard the rumor that they were forced to change the name to KFC because the FDA said their chicken was not longer chicken... but apparently that is not true. [snopes.com] According to snopes, here are the reasons they changed the name:

• A move to de-emphasize "chicken" because KFC planned to offer a varied menu that included other types of food. (The Boston Chicken corporation took the same approach for the same reason, changing their name of its retail food outlets to Boston Market.)
  
  
• A desire to eliminate the word "fried," which has negative connotations to the increasingly health-conscious consumer market.
  
  
• A recent trend towards the abbreviation of long commercial titles, as demonstrated by other companies' employing shortened forms of their names, such as The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) and Howard Johnson's (HoJo).

Kentucky Fried Chicken, from a McDonalds perspecti

"Kentucky Fried Chicken" was changed to KFC back in 1991! You may or may not have heard the rumor that they were forced to change the name to KFC because the FDA said their chicken was not longer chicken... but apparently that is not true.

Yeah, that's absolute idiocy. I was working for McDonalds at the time, back in high school, and we had the same bullshit: "The patties are 100% pure beef" implied that we'd created/purchased a company called "100% Pure Beef". We didn't; the supplier (name a Canadian or American national meat packaging company) and the ingredients were marked clearly on the box: beef. Some even stated province: Pure Alberta Beef. 100% Ontario Beef. New York's finest Dead Cow. (OK, the last one was a joke... d'Uh)) The fact is (and as a former manager, a position to which I was promoted quickly because I actually showed up on time and *most* days liked my co-workers, customers and my job) McDonald's hamburgers are a higher grade of beef (Cdn AAA) than you can usually buy in the supermarket. That's lower fat than is commonly available to consumers. And it's very important to McDonalds - higher fat would be bad for the cooking process (admittedly not an open flame, unfortunately) and for the dietary disclosures now required. Throw a 1/4 pound of top-end premium ground into a frying pan, and I guarantee you'll get more fat than if you threw a *half* pound of uncooked McDonalds quarter-patties in the pan. (Try a few McDonalds, tell them you're on some sort of my-parents-were-idiot-hippies raw beef diet, sooner or later one of them will let you have uncooked patties. American or Canadian, I'll bet money than 1/2 pound of McDonalds patties gives less fat than 1/4 of extra-lean grocery store beef.)

As for KFC, all you need to do is bite into it to know it's chicken. I don't know what sort of scientifically (and culinarily) inept uncircumcised inbred NDP-voter started the rumor that "KFC can't call themselves KFC because they don't serve chicken", but it's really sufficiently asinine that the offender shouldn't be allowed to vote or procreate. If you disagree, there's a great B-Movie (sparsely available by Torrents, etc.) called "The Willies" - you'll enjoy the Tennessee Fricassee Chicken scene for sure.

I can't speak for the PETA comments against KFC, which I hope are the usual PETA bullshit. I am a carnivore but I feel for anything with a nervous system - but I will remind you that PETA has been right on occasion. OTOH, if there were anything more stupid than chicken, it would be called a "plant", it would breathe carbon dioxide, and it would think George Bush was a terrific President.

Yes, KFC is chicken. Yes, it's fried. Yes, the founder was from Kentucky. If you're too stupid to understand that the K and the F became liabilities with the diet craze(s) (whatever happened to *moderation*, you know, like us adults do), you don't deserve to breathe or breed.

But so long as you money is still real, "Can I take your order?" (We don't even want to get into my experiences with fat people: "Double Big Mac combo, large sized, large soft drink... better make it a Diet Coke, I'm trying to lose weight..." Me, screaming in my mind at the top of my lungs: "THEN MAKE THIS YOUR WEEKLY NOT DAILY TREAT TO YOURSELF, GET AN ACTIVE HOBBY, AND CUT OFF THE BON-BONS, YOU FUCKING HIDEOUS AND STINKY BEACHED WHALE." Spoken: "Oh yes, a Diet Coke will do *wonders* for your physique." - if they were any dumber, or if I were a commissioned salesperson, I'd tell them I was gay and sell them a *simply fabulous* pair of culottes and a front-load washer - they're dumb enough to trust "diet" over common sense, so they must be dumb enough to trust a cute little rubber door seal over gravity.)

Finally, say what you want about KFC, but sometimes I just get a craving for it - it's damned good (except when you go to a sucky franchise whose left it under the heat lamps too long, in which case it's only slightly better than cafeteria food). KFC, aside from their proprietary seasonings,

Great

So the aliens will locate us by tracking down Hitler's speeches, and when they get here they'll see the KFC logo. I guess they'll cap it off by landing in Darfur. First impressions are so important...

Re:Great

Just so we're all perfectly clear on this point; I did not have anything to do with it.

KFG

It's so all alien visitors will know...

... that we all taste just like chicken.

Let's define VISIBLE as naked eye visible

if I can see my backyard from google maps.. that's (ahem) [B] VISIBLE FROM SPACE [/B]

Re:Let's define VISIBLE as naked eye visible

I agree, because I've seen store logos that were clearly ment to be seen from planes in Google Earth. Like the massive Target at lat 40.783780 lon -73.833376

By the way, does anyone know how big that Taco Bell logo was? You know, the giant one that Taco Bell said they'd give everyone in America a free taco if a piece of the Mir station hit it?

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40' by 40' (~12.19 meters square)

Re:Let's define VISIBLE as naked eye visible

Link to the Target [google.com], for the lazy.

I never really seriously wanted to be an actuary

... but insuring marketing innovations like "If this logo gets hit by a falling space station then everyone in America gets a taco" must be like the career-crowning capstone of the profession. "Bah, any idiot can underwrite a life-insurance policy for a 36 year old male nonsmoker. Its the REAL men who can just close their eyes and say, yep, I know what the risk of getting plastered by satellite debris is. Incidentally, $234 premium for coverage through the end of the year on a $200 million policy with a $150 deductible. NEXT."

Patterns Not Visible From Ground?

How could an ignorant civilization have created such an intricate design that is only visible from high up? From the ground it looks like nothing. No human could have had the coordination to design such a picture. It must have been made by alien visitors, which neatly explains dinosaur fossils: those are their discarded "chicken" bones.

Use of crops for ads?

I wonder why someone doesn't make an advertisement in crops after harvest (e.g. like crop circles)? Seems like it would relatively cheap and easy to make something 100-200 acres (100X larger than the KFC ad), and it would certainly get a lot of press. More people might see it as well, since every flight attendant in the country would point it out to travelers as they fly over.

Ads need to be visible standing on the Earth

What is the point of ads visible from Earth orbit? Are there lots of people in orbit to sell to? The ads need to be visible by somebody standing on the Earth. Perhaps they could be on the Moon.

Here is a well known company [google.co.uk] whose logo is also visible from space.

brilliant!

we've been beaming decades of reruns of "war of the worlds" into space via tv signals, so the aliens are certain to be wise to the bacteria threat and are certain to bring their antibiotics

but i don't think anyone has made a movie about alien susceptibility to "supersize me"-style death by artery clogging. so now when the aliens do come, this kfc beacon will guide them to their first meal of addictive tasty trans fats, and they shall die of arteriosclerosis, rather than sepsis

a brilliant plan! huzzah to kfc for saving the world!

The target audience

It seems a reasonable investment, when you think of it. They're targeting the highly desirable "ISS astronaut" market, and everyone knows how much fried chicken those guys eat. They're insatiable!

Re:The target audience

I'd say the target audience is people who use Google Earth or other up to date satellite service. I know I loaded Google Earth upon reading this. I wonder how long it will be before this ad shows up? I've heard Area 51 is a common search for Google Earth. It's not surprising this add was created near it.

What the aliens are thinking

"Man, I love the smell they have around this planet. Where's it coming from again? Oh, right, this 'KFC' place. Goodness, it smells good. And hey! There's the logo. Tell me, Xghrth, why don't we come here more often?"

[15 minutes and an empty box later]

"Ungh.... THAT'S why..."

Maxim?

Didn't Maxim already do this by putting a magazine cover of theirs somewhere near Las Vegas? It showed up as an overlay in Google Earth so I wasn't sure if it was just a bitmap they paid Google to show, or if it's a representation of the actual billboard but overlaid on older satellite images.

Re:Maxim?

It has been taken down; here is what it looked like [maximonline.com]

Meh

I'm still waiting for the first company logo visible from earth (in space).
I always wondered how much it'd cost to paint the moon with a logo. I know it would be astronomical (heh), but surely it'd be worth it for whichever company (coke) did it? I mean, a logo on the moon! beat that, KFC. Who's going to be looking at their crappy from-space logo if the moon has a frikkin coke logo on it? ha!

I think I need some more coffee.

Re:Meh

If I could do something to the moon, I'm afraid everyone would be looking at F**K instead of a logo. The world has no idea how lucky it is that I don't have that power.

Company Logo Visible from Earth

I'm still waiting for the first company logo visible from earth (in space).

If there is anything that would lead me to seriously consider engaging in open rebellion against capitalist western culture, a la Camus, this would be it. The last thing some New

Re:Meh

Yeah. Coke's working on setting off supernovae, timed so that it lights up the night sky with "Coke Brings Life"

Target Market = Tinfoil hat wearers

This is not such a bad idea; when the paranoids and UFO watchers check satellite shots of Area 51 they'll see the KFC ad, and notice they're hungry. Actually, Area 51 is probably near the top of the list of places people plug into Google Earth, so a lot of people are likely to see this.

Billboard from space

Billboard on busy highway during rush hour, $5,000
Television ad during Superbowl, $1,200,000
Getting your logo on Google for free, Priceless

So, what's next and how much will be spent to get "free" advertising on Google?
Or, when will GOogle get wise and start charging for AdSpace or EarthAds?

Time for a new right...

I think we need the right not to look at advertising.

Am I alone in thinking that advertising should be restricted to certain public spaces designated as 'commercial', and should otherwise not be permitted? I strongly feel that I should be able to move around the world freely without having to look at KFC ads. We pay quite a lot of attention to our environment in a chemistry/biology context, but very little to it in terms of what kind of mental environment we are inhabiting.

I am generally relatively libertarian, believe it or not. I hate laws that interfere unneccessarily with people's right to do whatever they want. But the day I can't go anywhere on this planet without seeing an orbiting billboard [slashdot.org] is the day I become a serial killer. I guess I consider that a billboard or whatever isn't really 'over there' on someone else's property, because I feel its effects wherever I have the misfortune to observe it.

Put it this way - would we tolerate sound advertising that was audible from anywhere on earth? No. So why is visual advertising any different?

We are in danger of becoming a civilisation so enamoured with commerce that we have no independent culture or sense of aesthetics. I mean, we're branding the fucking PLANET now? It's sick. Commerce is a means to an end: we have made it an end in itself. As the first comment on the blog says, "this makes me want to kill myself".

Re:Time for a new right...

Am I alone in thinking that advertising should be restricted to certain public spaces designated as 'commercial', and should otherwise not be permitted?

Yes. Next question.

This one is from the 1920s

-86.49187 Longitude
41.66944 Latitude

It is on the Bendix Proving Grounds, just West of South Bend, Indiana.

Those are 20-30 meter tall trees. And the word 'Studebaker'(original owner) is about 550 meters long.

Re:This one is from the 1920s

Google maps link: http://www.google.com/maps?q=41.66870852724252,-86 .49160929064662 [google.com]

First? Ha!

They must've forgotten about the "©2006 Google" clearly visible by satellite [google.com] every 200 ft.

NOT visible from space.

Visible from space means, visible from where the atmosphere effectively ends. Even in the lower strata, the buildings and the roads will also have to be visible for the logo to be visible.

Its really visible when you use zooming technology, in which case my house and care are already visible thanks to Google Earth as proof.

And plenty of company logos can be found going through Google Earth.

first?

What about the company whose logo is the Earth?

Don't forget..

The time may come when the firefox logo is visible. Of course, then we must all panic as the giant space fox has come to hump the planet...

What About Eva?

Apparently KFC never heard of Maxim's giant magazine cover [quickonlinetips.com] of Eva Longoria [maximonline.com].

Re:What About Eva?

The Maxim giant magazine cover isn't a logo, that's the only real difference here.

First Company Logo visible From Low Earth Orbit

There, fixed the headline for you.

Raping the desert

I bet this brilliant f**ing "event company" just saw that they needed to clear a bunch of "weeds". Apparently they didn't bother to find out how long desert plants take to regrow. Scars in the desert can take decades to heal.

I was born and raised in the Mojave Desert. It's a beautiful place and it makes me sick to see a bunch of out-of-town yahoos clearcut a bunch of it for their little stunt. 'Course environmental awareness isn't the first thing that KFC brings to mind so it's par for the course.

From nerds to KFC:

Needs antialiasing.

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uh, in TFA? About 3/4 of the way down?

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What does it mean to be visible from space?

Advertising on Google Earth and Virtual Earth.

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As other have ponted out, Google Earth uses aerial orthophotos.

But in essence you are right. Consider this 5m [satimagingcorp.com] resolution image. You can see a municipal baseball field in it; you could easily set up an array of a hundred or so people with cardboard placard

Re:Visible from space?

Come on, you got his point, don't you? I was about to comment on that too, you don't need to make something friggin huge to have it seen from space, it's all about the resolution you can get from your satelitte, so saying that it's the "First Company Logo Visible From Space" is absurd, for more accuracy it should be "First Company Logo Meant To Be Visible From Space"