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

When will it stop?

[grub]

Wait for the first "Want your willie to be THIS BIG??" spam stretching for hundreds of kilometers across the horizon.

Jokes aside, why do people put up with intrusive advertising as a given? How much of your money spent on a 1 litre soft drink goes directly towards advertising the product back to you? I read some time ago that "big 3" North American automakers spend approximately US$1500 (averaged) on advertising for each vehicle sold.

Ultimately you foot the bill & suffer with the barrage of adverts, they reap the sales & expense write offs.

Re:When will it stop?

[stratjakt]

Most of those "advertising" dollars are spent sponsoring things like sporting events, theatre, live concerts, etc..

Almost every major venue has a corporate sponsor these days. Staples Arena, 1st Mariner Arena, Air Canada Center, Ford Center for the Performing Arts, etc.. Because, by themselves, these arena's arent profitable.

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

So the big corporations write it off as marketing dollars, we get our big stadiums and events.. They also pay for our free-to-air TV and radio (which is a relatively small amount of their advertising budgets).

Re:When will it stop?

[isorox]

Fine, start a company that doesn't advertise. You'll be able to sell your product much cheaper.

Re:When will it stop?

[Xawen]

With the notable exception that you can opt-out of this so called "tax" by simply not purchasing the product. I'd like to see you try that with a real tax. The advertising, the events, and the additional cost are more like by-products. As with anything else, if you are opposed to the by-product, you cease use of whatever creates it.

As if there weren't already enough evidence...

[Denyer]

...that Matt Groening was a prophet. *shakes head sadly*

I wonder to what extent the patent is attributable to the numerous examples of this kind of behaviour in traditional science-fiction and popular media such as Futurama?

Aren't you actually required to have a prototype?

[Queuetue]

Did he just point to a Coke can and say "Like this, but big!"

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.

Reagan was right.

[S3D]

Antisatellite weapon have some uses.

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?

Great!

[Bones3D_mac]

Now AT&T can have finally have a Death Star circling the planet!

Letter to the Human Race:

[Anonymous Coward]

Last night, I walked outside for a bit because it was such a beautiful evening (night). I looked up into the sky and just froze for about 10 minutes. The starlit night sky was just breathtaking and I couldn't help myself from just staring up and my flesh was acrawl with goosebumps. The ultimate humbling experience. For a moment, I left the confinds of my earthly hell and felt at peace amongst the bright pinpoints of light.
I get enough of the human race here on earth, let me have the sky as my own sanctuary, please keep your popup ads to yourselves.

"Now Over To The Weather Forecast..."

[pandrijeczko]

The temperature today will be a warm 22 degrees centigrade with humidity at 85%...

There will be a South-Westerly breeze of 12 mph...

Pepsi-rise will be at 6:14am and Nike-set will be at 8:48pm...

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.