We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with a plethora of advertisements, in every manner, form, time and place possible which has gotten to a ridiculously irritating level.
The reason is obvious. There are millions and millions of products and services and ads are the most preferred way to get customers to buy them in a cut throat environment. Corporations spend billions upon billions of dollars every year on advertisements trying to woo customers in any way possible.
While the advertisements do support many businesses, services, artists, content creators and many others, which is obviously necessary, sometimes one can't help but feel that advertisers are really overreaching now.
Today I read an article about this new project where Pepsico is partnering with a Russian company to place advertisements in the night sky. While a part of me thinks that the idea is something new and cool, another part of me feels like this is completely insane!
Ads From Space
If you've watched a sci-fi movie, depicting future life, you may have already seen what ads in the night sky beamed from space look like. It seems like we might be headed in that direction in real life as well.
A Russian company, StartRocket is planning to launch cubesats into orbit around our planet which will essentially serve as billboards in space. Once in place, these can be used to project advertisements that would be clearly visible against the night sky.
Pepsico, it seems is the first one who is eager enough to try this out. And since it's such a new idea and prone to outrage from the public, they are starting out with a social campaign. It's a campaign against the sterotypes and prejudices against gamers. They surely know how to soften the blow. Start out with something emotional, slowly make it normal, and then boom, ads all night.
StartRocket has apparently already tested this with helium balloons at first and plan to launch the satellites in orbit in 2021. In an era where light pollution is already a huge issue, corporations are already beginning to plan taking over the sky as well. In a way, that is so invasive, blocking out the beauty of the cosmos and replacing it with ads!
What do you think? It is a cool idea or a really crazy one. One that should not be allowed to progress any further.