Leicester (UK) – If you had the chance to send a message into space, what would it be? People in the UK have an opportunity to get their Doritos-sponsored message sent to 47 Ursae Majoris, which is believed to be supporting living organisms – 42 light years away from Earth.   

The space commercial is part of Doritos’ “You Make It, We Play It” user-generated-content campaign in the UK. People are being asked to be creative and shoot a 30 second video ad about what they perceive life on earth to be.

The winning ad will lift off into space on June 12 from a 500 MHz Ultra High Frequency Radar from the EISCAT Space Centre in Svalbard, which lies in the Arctic Ocean about midway between northern Norway and the North Pole. The target is a planetary systems surrounding 47 UMa (Ursae Majoris), a star which is believed “to host a habitable zone that could potentially harbor small terrestrial planets and support life as we know it,” researchers from the University of Leicester said.

Travelling at the speed of light, of course, it will take the commercial 42 years to reach its target area. The ad signal, which is separated into several portions that are encoded in '1's and '0's each, is estimated to pass the Sun after 4:30 minutes and to leave our solar system after in just under nine minutes. The transmission signal will be boosted with about 2000 million watts of power and could travel for “hundreds of light years,” the researchers said.

In case you are interested to see the message that is sent out into space, Doritos said that the ad will also be broadcast on UK television. The YouTube copy should be available soon after its June 12 debut.

Another form of space advertising, called “moonvertising” is set to see another try this month. Latrobe Brewing company from St. Louis says it will put a logo for its “Rolling Rock” beer on the moon, using a green laser. There are some doubts whether current technology would allow the Rolling Rock logo actually appear on the moon and there are certainly concerns how such a high-powered light beam would interfere with air traffic. We will find out on March 21, when the logo is planned to be displayed on the moon.

What's wrong with this people????

Mar 07, 2008 14:00     

I know the possibilities of such a message to be received by a capable being is remote, but what the hell is going on here? We might be making contact with a completely alien lifeform and what we are sending is a god-damned commercial? User generated content??? Fuck protocols, fuck every risk associated with some other being interpreting the signal as harmful. We'll be dead by the time the message gets across.

Baka_toroi report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

advertisers will stop at nothing

Mar 07, 2008 14:22     

Granted, putting a message on the moon is pretty cool, but seriously this speaks volumes about the lengths advertisers will go to to make sure you spend your money on their product. There really is nothing they wont do to sell a beer. Think about the implications. Companies fighting over "moon time". I wonder how long it will be before a law is passed dividing up moonvertising time.
lolz report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Great...

Mar 07, 2008 16:14     

So, when they show up in their giant space cruisers, and annihilate us for spamming the cosmos, I can blame these sods?
TSU report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

which is believed to be supporting living organism

Mar 07, 2008 16:43     

"which is believed to be supporting living organisms" Not quite. What kind of sensationalist crap is that? It's believed to MAYBE have a habitable zone where a planet could MAYBE have liquid water which could MAYBE be an environment that supports life and which could MAYBE indeed have life forms
sam report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Doritos Advert

Mar 07, 2008 16:50     

I don't know, Doritos has pretty good taste in advertising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNB84nE1rvk I could imagine extraterrestrials enjoying something like that.
Ch report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Nice idea..

Mar 07, 2008 17:02     

For some reason the Twilight Episode "To Serve Man" comes to mind when I read this article...
Rob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Imagine...

Mar 07, 2008 17:21     

if this ended up being the way we made contact with intelligent alien life.
nowei report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Save the moon!

Mar 07, 2008 17:42     

I really can not see people tolerating ads projected on to the moon. I think there would be a lot of backlash. Just think of how absurd it sounds.
Ryan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

They'll engrave it all right..

Mar 07, 2008 23:24     

on the back of the moon. and hey, you complain about the advertising but that money is what paid to send that message out. no money equals no messages at all. increasing our odds of contacting other intelligent life (big if obviously) is as simple as letting companies try to sell another beer as lolz said. who cares? a doritos commercial will certainly prompt investigation by other life forms. maybe they'll send an add for cereal in return.

Kyle report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

All your doritos....

Mar 09, 2008 10:27     

are belong to us! Seriously though, what about reaching all the alians here on earth? I mean look at Mrs Clinton... she's an alian, and could probably use something fun and good in her life lol.
Caeden report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

DNA Dorritos

Mar 09, 2008 11:15     

It is Possible that the earth will be destroyed in 42 years by Nutrition extreemists from far far away. Who is to say that their unborn embryos don't take the shape of a dorrito, or maybe thats the name of their planet. They take it as "To serve Them"
Paco Time report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Man the ramparts

Mar 11, 2008 16:00     

84 years from now, when an inter-stellar battle fleet shows up to annihilate us because the people on Ursae Majoris misinterpreted our Doritos ad, our descendants will know whom to blame.
Stewart report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

What if

Mar 12, 2008 03:37     

What if they take offence to us promoting a product that has so much fat and salt?
De Astra report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

more than the moon out there....

Mar 24, 2008 16:51     

How about advertising on the sun. Yea, that works. Cleanse the gene pool a bit.
Robert report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

new moon would be better

Mar 27, 2008 16:24     

I think they would have a better chance of sucess with the moon logo if they try it during the new moon instead of the full moon when the moon is full we are getting the complete reflection of the sun off the moon during the new moon the dark side faces us making it that much more likely we could see any light projected onto it.
edzo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0