In one of my multiple Facebook updates today I received a youtube link which seemingly was trying to drum up interest in advertising on the moon. Yes that’s what I said….the moon. Using a technology called Shadow Shaping, a company could spend A LOT of money and have their logo or advertisement created by little robots that would move the moon’s dust and create shadows that would display a message visible with the naked eye here on earth.

 

My first reaction was… this cannot be real. No way! Even if we have the technology... why would anyone consider defacing something as natural and beautiful as the moon, just to get company notoriety or to sell a product?

My curiosity led me to the site the ad was for and I read it with great skepticism. Even now I have no idea if it’s a scam, joke, or actual “advertisement opportunity”, however it did get me thinking about advertising and how polluted our culture is with it.

 

I have seen advertising in places that just absolutely make me shake my head. In parking lots, the actual stripes painted for parking now have company names and slogans. At the checkout counter in WalMart, televisions are actually playing small commercials as if you haven’t bought enough already. And you can’t go to a movie anymore and just see previews for upcoming movies. Now there are tattoos, towns being renamed, livestock, and my favorite: bumvertising.

 

Advertising is part of my bread and butter, but I think there are lines that haven’t been drawn yet that have to eventually be drawn. There are a plethora of apocalyptic/science fiction movies that peg humans as viruses or incapable of handling the responsibilities of caring for our planet, and I think there is actually some real science out there that can back up those imaginations. I’m just saying that if, in my lifetime, I look up and see a big Nike swoosh on my moon, I‘ll be the first in line when the aliens come... to offer my life and say “Yup we suck…kill us all please.”