Out of This World Advertising

In the grip of a funding shortfall, British astronomers at Leicester University have accepted an undisclosed donation from the Doritos corn chip company in exchange for blasting a 30-second promotional spot 42 light years into space at a star in the Ursa Major constellation. The star is thought to be similar enough to our sun to possibly harbor life.

Sending signals into space is nothing new. It happens all the time indiscriminately. Radio, television, and other signals are constantly spilling into outer space, but they are diffuse over large distances. The Doritos stunt, scheduled for interstellar broadcast this June, more closely resembles the work of NASA's Deep Space Network, which beamed the Beatles's Across the Universe directly to the North Star last year.

The Doritos ad that will be representing mankind on our behalf was culled from a crop of amateur YouTube videos as part of Doritos's "You Make It" challenge. For whatever buzz Frito Lay achieves with their ridiculous publicity gag, it will pale in comparison to the first lunar ad, when branding is projected directly onto the surface of the moon. With all that undercapitalized real estate up there, you've got to believe it's only a matter of time.