Pepsi Drops Plans To Use Artificial Constellation To Promote An Energy Drink (spacenews.com) 85
Just days after Pepsi announced that it would advertise its products in space using a Russian startup, the company now says it will no longer pursue the plans, avoiding what likely would have resulted in significant public criticism. Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from SpaceNews: The publication Futurism reported April 13 that PepsiCo's Russian subsidiary was working with a startup there called StartRocket to advertise an energy drink called "Adrenaline Rush" using satellites. The company has proposed flying a set of small satellites in formation, reflecting sunlight with Mylar sails to create logos or other advertising messages visible from the ground after sunset and before sunrise.
PepsiCo's headquarters in the United States has shot down the idea. "We can confirm StartRocket performed an exploratory test for stratosphere advertisements using the Adrenaline GameChangers logo," a company spokesperson told SpaceNews April 15. "This was a one-time event; we have no further plans to test or commercially use this technology at this time." The company didn't elaborate on the "exploratory test for stratosphere advertisements," but it appears to refer to a high-altitude balloon test of the technology that StartRocket says on its website it planned to carry out in April in cooperation with Russia's Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, or Skoltech. "People have a visceral dislike of space-based advertising," adds schwit1.
PepsiCo's headquarters in the United States has shot down the idea. "We can confirm StartRocket performed an exploratory test for stratosphere advertisements using the Adrenaline GameChangers logo," a company spokesperson told SpaceNews April 15. "This was a one-time event; we have no further plans to test or commercially use this technology at this time." The company didn't elaborate on the "exploratory test for stratosphere advertisements," but it appears to refer to a high-altitude balloon test of the technology that StartRocket says on its website it planned to carry out in April in cooperation with Russia's Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, or Skoltech. "People have a visceral dislike of space-based advertising," adds schwit1.
We did it! (Score:4, Funny)
All of our complaining worked! Now let's go celebrate with a nice cold Pepsi!
Re: (Score:3)
60 years ago, Belgian comic writers Greg and Franquin imagined a prototypical megalomaniac mad scientist whose attempt to fame included advertizing Coca Cola on the moon by sending rockets with dyes to the moon : http://www.otakia.com/wp-conte... [otakia.com]
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, well, Arthur C. Clarke did it 63 years ago with a giant sodium cloud in the shape of a (probably) Coca-cola logo.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
And James Merendino has been trying to get his "Neon Moon" script produced for, well, ever.
Re: (Score:2)
That is a weird way to spell RC Cola.
Don't forget to L@@K under the liner though before throwing the cap away. :D
Look! Now we're cool! (Score:1)
"Hey look!! We're So Responsive We Dropped The Idea!!"
Yay Pepsi. Sorta like someone offers to poop on your living room carpet, then says they must be awesome people because they didn't when you asked them not to.
Yay Pepsi. Or something.
Re: (Score:3)
To be fair to the maligned megacorp, they said none of that, you were the one who said it all. They released a simple purely factual statement about their decision, in response to inquiries. They did not launch a new advertising campaign about their responsible choices or make any attempt to turn their decision into a marketing technique.
Let's fuck up the sky as well (Score:3)
with daily ads.
I suppose it is better than Project A119(detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon).
Re: (Score:2)
How exactly? How does a momentary burst of dust and radiaton on a radiation-soaked ball of dust and rock, with scientific and military applications, compare to a long-lived contamination of the beauty of the night sky?
Yeah "nuclear bad" and all that, but the moon makes the worst badlands we test them on here look like verdant paradises in comparison - and here the fallout reaches everywhere in the world.
Re: (Score:2)
Huh? Why is better? The nuclear bomb would have no lasting impacts and be minor compared to the endless barrage of of meteors that strike the surface. Hell NASA live streamed the event happening naturally https://www.space.com/43075-bl... [space.com] during the last luna eclipse. Now admittedly it was only 1/3rd of the size of Project A119 but it also didn't leave any notable mark on the moon, unlike the other many thousands of times the same thing has happened on a bigger scale.
You didn't even know this happened did y
Re: The plan from the start. (Score:2)
Get twice the PR
Don't fool yourself; there is such a thing as bad publicity... and all that you need to achieve it is to hire the sort of morons that clearly run Pepsi.
Then again, I'm not quite sure how the soft drink industry is supposed to grow their 'Sales of Slurm' (as per Wall Street's expectations) without pulling something out of their ass.
Re: The plan from the start. (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not a big soda drinker, but I will stop completely if they start pulling things out of their ass.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a big soda drinker, but I will stop completely if they start pulling things out of their ass.
You're probably not in their target demographic - they'll make more money turning regular soda drinkers from Coke to Pepsi than convincing an occasional soda drinker (who is probably not even brand-loyal) to drink an occasional Pepsi, it seems unlikely that they'll turn an occasional drinker into a regular drinker. The average American drinks 45 gallons of soda a year (~16 ounces/day) -- this is who they want.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a big soda drinker, but I will stop completely if they start pulling things out of their ass.
Leela: How can you trick people into drinking something that comes out of your behind? It's disgusting.
Slurm Queen: Is it? Honey comes from a bee's behind. Milk comes from a cow's behind. And have you ever used toothpaste?
Fry: Whose behind does that come from?
Slurm Queen: You don't wanna know.
Re: The plan from the start. (Score:4, Funny)
Milk comes from a cow's behind
That's udderly untrue.
Re: (Score:2)
Reminds me of the moment when Hunk (I think that was who it was) showed Allura and Coran where the milk from the ice cream they were enjoying came from.
Still need to finish the last season and a half soon and then try the original Voltron once Legendary Defender is wrapped up.
Re: (Score:2)
I always thought honey was bee barf, not bee doo... (I know, it was just a Futurama quote, but when else will I get the opportunity to utilize the phrase bee barf?)
Re: (Score:2)
So the quote is incorrect about both honey AND milk....
Now I really wonder where toothpaste is really coming from!
This is stupid (Score:2)
A total waste of resources for something that is unhealthy anyway.
Re: (Score:1)
It would have been public vandalism of the right of every person to enjoy a view of the milky way and they would have be subject to an extremely damaging global class action suit.
America, everyone loves looking from the coast out to see, why don't you show the world what proper seppos you are and put billboards at the waterline, claim it is for the safety of children they can grab hold of them if they are drowning, profits right there but of course only on peasant, 'er', public beaches, definitely not in f
Re: This is stupid (Score:2)
...an extremely damaging global class action suit.
In "Global Civil Court," no doubt.
Maybe very tiny (Score:2)
It occurs to me that the overall shape of the 100 meter International Space Station can be seen with binoculars, resting atop one's car.
At the same altitude, and ten times that distance, 1km, a shape could be visible to the naked eye. (Cubesats 1km apart, each holding a mylar sail). At 1km distance between, they'd orbit almost as if it was one object. In fact, they could be attached with mylar coated tethers.
At an altitude lower than IIS, they could be slightly closer together, or appear larger.
Re:Maybe very tiny (Score:4, Funny)
Pepsi could have donated several hundred square meters of additional solar panels for the ISS. Panels that just happen to be shaped like letters of the alphabet.
"Guys, great job installing the new panels.. but you need to re-arrange them. People are wondering what 'PE PIS' means."
Re: (Score:2)
A 1km sheet, at an altitude of 300 km would have an angular size of 11 arc minutes, or 1/3 the apparent size of the moon. The resolution of the naked eye is about 1 arc minute, so all you have is a 121 px thumbnail, although based on being able to see detail on the moon, there's a lot of anti-aliasing going on!
To get a decent thumbnail, say 64x64 px so we can identify the Pepsi logo properly, we'll need a screen 5.8 km square. At that size, tidal accelerations are only about +- 0.015 m/s^2 (0.15% of a g), b
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like you knew how to do the numbers and arrived at the same conclusion - a tiny one would be hard, but probably not impossible.
Don't fall for the ads (Score:5, Interesting)
Pepsi gets ads for "considering" space ads. Pepsi gets ads for "withdrawing" space ads. Pepsi gets several news cycles for cheap. Don't fall for the obviously false narrative.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Don't fall for the ads (Score:4, Insightful)
Right, because now that people have heard of "Pepsi" they will go out and buy one, since, you know, they never heard of Pepsi before.
Re: (Score:2)
Right, because now that people have heard of "Pepsi" they will go out and buy one, since, you know, they never heard of Pepsi before.
So what is this "Pepsi" then? Do I have to buy one to find out or will an explanation do?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I fully believe that Pepsi would rather nobody had heard of the idea in the first place. They don't need an article mentioning them to remind people that they exist, and they don't want their brand associated with destroying the night sky. Articles like this tell people that they explored something horrible, so it does not work in their favor even though they've dropped it... only less in their disfavor than if they hadn't.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm more inclined to go with incompetence. Their Superbowl ad was also widely panned.
They are certainly no Nike or Gillette, carefully pissing off a small but vocal minority while gaining support from everyone else in the backlash.
Visceral dislike of space-based advertising (Score:5, Interesting)
People have a visceral dislike of space-based advertising," adds schwit1.
No, people have a visceral dislike of ANY advertising - and the more obnoxious and unavoidable, the more they hate it.
In a way, I wish Pepsi had gone through with their stupid plan: it might have provoked a real backlash against the ubiquitous brain pollution that is advertising. People bear with it because of things like Adblock on the internet, fast-forward on TV boxes, and looking the other way on the road. But there's no avoiding a disfigured night sky.
Re: (Score:2)
Still trying to understand why the superbowl (er superb owl) gets a pass on this.
Re: (Score:2)
You're obviously referring to something but I have no idea what. Please tell me you aren't referring to some niche super bowl commercial without explaining yourself.
Re: (Score:2)
the term 'super bowl' is apparently under copyright. So when Colbert was talking about a few years back, he referred to it as 'superb owl'
Re: (Score:2)
That is not copyrighted. Names do not get copyright protection, just trademark. And that is why a toilet cleaner can be called Super Bowl without risk of a business destroying lawsuit.
Re: (Score:2)
In a way, I wish Pepsi had gone through with their stupid plan: it might have provoked a real backlash against the ubiquitous brain pollution that is advertising.
It would have been fun, for every 3rd world country with a rocket program trying to make the big leagues with some anti-satellite antics, to start taking shots at it.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
No, people have a visceral dislike of ANY advertising - and the more obnoxious and unavoidable, the more they hate it.
Parse error. Circular logic. (True) != (True under certain circumstances)
Fry (Score:2)
Well sure, but not in our dreams! Only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree.
Goes out and buys a case of Pepsi (Score:1)
I Offer Pepsi an Indulgence (Score:3)
Red Dwarf! (Score:1)
Startrocket had better have a secure system (Score:2)