You may have seen a story go viral over the weekend about a plan to broadcast ads on orbital billboards in the night sky, with the first being for PepsiCo’s energy drink Adrenaline Rush as part of a “campaign against stereotypes and unjustified prejudices against gamers”.
It’s certainly an attention-grabbing story, like something out of a cyberpunk book. The Russian company behind the plan is called StartRocket, and they’ve apparently tested the idea by using a helium balloon to carry a reflector up into the stratosphere.
For an idea what Adrenaline Rush ads look like, and why the campaign would involve videogames, you can watch one of their ordinary terrestrial commercials.
Don’t start investing in rocket launchers yet, however. We reached out to PepsiCo to ask if they really were planning to beam ads over the stars and received the following statement:
“We can confirm StartRocket performed an exploratory test for stratosphere advertisements using the Adrenaline GameChangers logo. This was a one-time event; we have no further plans to test or commercially use this technology at this time.”
So there you have it. Yes, it’s a real thing that really was tested, which on its own is frightening. But, no, Pepsi isn’t currently planning to smear its logos over the stars leading to an inevitable escalation that ends with Coca-Colo lasering their brand into the moon or something. And yes, fighting stereotypes about people who play videogames with obnoxious energy drink advertisements is an idea beyond parody.