Pepsi Advertisement In Space
Pepsi Advertisement In Space
In 1996, an extraordinary event took place when two Russian cosmonauts temporarily left their post on the Mir Space Station, allowing American astronauts to take over while they conducted a replacement on a spacewalk. However, what made this event even more interesting was that Yuri Onufrienko and Yuri Usachev also filmed part of an advertisement during their spacewalk. This is said to be the first-ever ad shot in space and is considered by some to be one of the best Pepsi ads ever created.
If you are interested in learning more about the history of this Pepsi ad and watching it, you can find further information below:
How much did Pepsi pay for advertisement in space?
At the time, the Russian space agency Roscosmos was facing significant financial constraints. This presented an opportunity for Pepsi to provide a much-needed injection of funds to support the mission, in exchange for creating a groundbreaking advertisement. The resulting ad is known to be one of the most expensive ever produced, with a cost exceeding $300 million dollars in 1996.
The Mir advertisement was part of a larger campaign launched by Pepsi to promote its new blue can design. As part of this campaign, the company convinced Air France to paint one of its jets blue and even paid a national newspaper to print on blue paper for a single day.
The logistics behind Pepsi space advertisement
During the spacewalk, the two Russian cosmonauts were accompanied by American astronaut Sharon Lucid, who stayed inside to monitor their life support systems and film the advertisement. The ad featured a large-sized replica of Pepsi's new blue can design, with the tagline "The choice of the next generation."
Pepsi continues to explore the use of outer space in its advertising efforts today. Their latest idea involves launching an "orbital billboard" that blinks their logo. In the past, Pepsi also employed skywriters to promote their products by zigzagging through the sky.
In 1985, Pepsi invested $14 million to send a space-safe canister of soda with astronauts, requiring special engineering efforts. While NASA classified it as an engineering demonstration, Pepsi used it as a commercial opportunity.
