Pop Up Ads in Space

modder writes "A Russian inventor has patented ads in space. Shouldn't this violate some sort of International Space Law?" Remember the first time your dad took you out at 1am into the backyard with a telescope? With Your kids the conversation will be something like "Follow the Swoosh to Arcturus, Drive a Spike to the AT&T Logo"

Comments

radio

[heliocentric]

Does this mean that the radio show is back in action?

The Man Who Sold The Moon

[Metryq]

This sounds like the "carbon powder rocket to the moon" perversity mentioned in Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon." I can imagine some companies running more discreet ads that they paid to keep the skies clear.

Will This Really Be Useful?

[jrduncans]

"People would be able to see writing in the skies from the Earth no worse than they see the stars," he said.

I know I can barely see the stars at all in the city. Is this only going to work to advertise to rural areas?

IANAL

[smoondog]

Shouldn't this violate some sort of International Space Law?

Maybe I'm wrong but I think it is permitted to have patent protection on an illegal invention.

-Sean

You'll get used to it.

[brejc8]

I remember some friends describing a trip to the then USSR and saying that Moscow is very dull and gray but they couldnt put their finger on why. They eventually realised that there was no advertising. More recently when they saw some footage of some Moscow riots there were loads of adverts plastered all over the place they commented how much nicer the place looks with bright colours and lights.

Im sure we will have the same situation in the future where you go for a holiday in some poorer country and complain that the space just looks balck and boring.

Re:Some random "observations"

[Frennzy]

That's not always the case.

At Burning Man two years ago, some guys created a sodium-arc laser, and used it to beam messages into space using simple modulation. They had a fairly large booth setup where folks could put in their message, and vote on other messages others had already put in. The messages that got the highest votes were beamed out every night into the sky to a location (constellation) requested by the message author.

Pointless? Most likely. Cool? Definitely.

They also took some time to draw patterns on the bluffs surrounding the desert floor, just for kicks.

So, art is alive and well...you just have to know where to look.

Re:Prior Art: I know, RTFA (Impracticality?)

[arivanov]

mirror constellation will either need some very large mirrors

Which in turn will generate a considerable amount of thrust so it will not stay in one place.

Classic solar sail.

In btw, this is feasible as a side effect for a solar sail ship. You make your sail advertise pepsi and get some dosh towards launch costs. Considering that solar sails are more then 17 years away (life of the patent) I do not see anything to worry about.

Look at it this way....

[BigGar']

The patent will expire before he's ever able to make it a reality.

Re:No, I don't think so...

[TurboDog99]

I agree with you on this one. If a company were to go ahead with polluting the sky with this garbage, I don't think they could ever do enough to convince me to buy from them again. At least with banner ads and TV ads, we're getting a service in exchange for viewing the ads, and we can opt-out by not going to those Internet sites or TV channels.

Re:When will it stop?

[Fnkmaster]

Right, and you'll surely sell a whole lot of them. Unfortunately, my experience with consumer products is that it takes a combination of word-of-mouth endorsement and advertising to get a product in front of people. And some products, by their nature, are more likely to benefit from pure word-of-mouth. Nonetheless, the fact is that people don't buy stuff they don't know about and that will continue to drive the market for new and creative ways to advertise products.

That being said, I think these kinds of terribly intrusive public ads are so clearly not a public good that they should be banned outright. It pretty much goes without saying that putting an ad in space is like turning the Grand Canyon into a massive ad, only about a million times worse. Communities should be able to set standards about things like public billboards. In the same way that a community doesn't want their public parks and nature reserves crapped up with ads, none of us want space crapped up with ads.

Re:When will it stop?

[nolife]

Noone could afford to race Nascar if not for those company decals plastered all over the cars.

I love auto racing and I love watching auto racing but I am not into circle driving and not a fan or follower of Nascar at all so my below opinion may not matter to you.
You are right, Nascar would not be where it is today without mega advertising dollars but you would still be able to visit a local dirt track / closed road race / motocross and see very good competition and good racing. You may not know the names but the side by side racing is exactly the same intensity but normally at lower relative speeds then Nascar and the local racing seems less predictable which adds fun also. Same agrument with the RIAA vs. independent musicians performing locally.

no more

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see how this is much worse than billboard ads, or ads hidden inside content such as movies. It's fascinating to see people get in an uproar over the notion of space ads, and yet we continue to allow people to invade and pollute our minds here on Earth.

It is time that we restore the sanity. The concept of sellers having to shout and try to attract attention in order to sell their product is outdated. The inefficiency and waste involved in flooding the environment with your advertisements to make a few sales is tremendous and not worth the price.

We now live in an age with the technology and distribution power so that we can essentially reverse our advertising methods. Rather than the seller going to the potential buyer, the buyer can go to the seller. We can designate specific areas, which can be privately or collectively maintained, and use these as advertising directories where sellers put all the info about the products, reviews, and any snazzy marketing tricks in these directories. This is how I currently shop anyways, by using the power of the information I *ACTIVELY SEEK OUT* to decide what to buy. By implementing such a method we will eliminate the need for intrusive ads, and will probably cut some of the fluff from our product lines as well.

Re:It won't. Americans need it.

[MotherInferior]

You're putting too much thought into it.

My point is that the actual quality of the product is irrelevant. Its value, for most folks, is determined not by quality but by perceived value. What does everyone else think about this product? To wit, a Gucci/Versace/Prada bag is not valuable because of how long it lasts/how well it performs but because it will get you [insert laudatory expression] from your [insert peer-group expression]. Or, it will get you [insert copulatory expression].

Perhaps it would have been better to use a non-geek example. Geeks tend to go to the other extreme. They have a habit of wearing fringe products like medals, if there is any real quality to the product. I.e. quality (to the exclusion of perceived value) is king.

So, in geek circles, the nGage sucks because, well, it just sucks as a product. The iPod is cool because, well, it does its job, and then some. Within Geekworld, these products' perceived values are (as they should be) based on their quality. Geeks are hardly mainstream, though. Outside Geekworld you'd be hard pressed to find someone who could give you a substantial reason for saying that the nGage sucks. Or that the iPod is cool. For most Americans, value is based on the tenuous (and highly manipulable) network of popular consensus. In essence, the marketing world is providing a kind of spritual leadership for the public consciousness.

Re:When will it stop?

[sjames]

The problem isn't so much the ads, it's the intrusiveness of advertisers.

For example, ads in malls are fine by me. The mall is a place specifically built for commerce, so it's to be expected. The Radio provides programming in return for the listener accepting ads. For me, it's not a worthwhile trade, so I don't bother with the radio.

Billboards should be restricted to developed commercial/industrial zones. Billboards along a highway shouldn't be.

As a side note, I do not buy clothes with big logos and designer names on them. I prefer unmarked clothes, but will accept those with an easily removed lable.

Telephone solicitation and spam are right out. The national do-not-call list was IMHO an excellent step in the right direction, I just wish it had happened 10 years ago.

Space trash

[Lord_Dweomer]

Ok, so we all know that trash in space is going to be a growing problem as we continue to reach out to the stars. Will we be able to get laws in place saying you can't litter, and this is considered littering? Or once we've got tons of space stations and every day space travel, is advertising in space going to just become as common as billboards while you drive?

Re:When will it stop?

[WorkEmail]

I remember a story similar to this, and I may have even read it here on /. but I am not sure. About Butterflies wings being colored to look like company logos. Genetics breakthroughs are being used to do productive things at least. Can you imagine going to the zoo and seeing a huge grizly bear that has red fur and a coca cola logo on the side of it?

Re:I may be missing the legal point.

[Texas Rose on Lava L]

This brings up an interesting question -- can you get a patent for a device/process that's clearly illegal under federal law?

For example, say someone applied for a patent on a method for manufacturing crack cocaine. Does submitting the application constitute a violation of the law in and of itself, or would the application simply be denied? Or, would it be granted? If it was granted, could the patent holder sue drug dealers for patent infringement?

Obviously, I don't advise trying this, because no matter what else happens, some DEA agents would surely "invite" themselves over to your house for a visit if you did... I'm just wondering how the patent office would handle this.

Re:Nothing New

[anubi]

You know, I would really like to know how much power it would take from Earth to illuminate the moon sufficiently for it to be easily recoginized from Earth... especially knowing the moon is not especially of a reflective nature.

The moon I see is illuminated by terawatts of sunlight. I suppose if I sat down and figured out exactly how many square feet of surface area was facing the sun at the time, and luminous flux per square foot, I could arrive at a more precise answer, but for now, I just know the answer is " a lot. ".

Trying to keep the light focused as it leaves our constantly changing refractive atmosphere might be a lot of fun too.

The only chance I see they could try is to try to do it during an eclipse?

If I didn't know any better, I would think this is an extension of...eh... wasn't Science Fiction author Robert Heinlein thinking along this line?

Just glad its not a government thing. I can buy Wal-Mart cola at 50 cents per 2 liter jug, if Coca Cola wants to spend their money on this, but I have no alternative to paying tax. That's my money gone - it won't live to support the economy by ending up in a local businesses cash register.