MARKETING: The Ultimate Ad Space

The last commercial-free frontier is about to be breached. When the first British-Soviet space mission blasts into orbit in 1991, the event will have all the advertising hoopla of the Super Bowl. Glavkosmos, the Soviet space agency, has hired Britain’s Saatchi & Saatchi agency to package corporate sponsorships, similar to those sold for the Olympic Games. The marketing ploy could raise an estimated $26 million to help pay for the project. During the mission, two Soviet cosmonauts and the first ever British astronaut will spend a week aboard the Mir space station. Saatchi has already designed the joint project’s logo, which features a soaring goose, and has named the mission Juno, in honor of the Roman goddess of marriage.

For a multimillion-dollar fee, a corporate sponsor could get permission to use Juno’s logo in its packaging and ads, possibly send company employees to the launching site and have its ads plastered on the Soyuz rocket and even the British astronaut’s space suit. Says Saatchi spokesman Bill Jones: “If we are successful, this guy will go up looking like a racing driver!”