In July 1969, ninety-four percent of American
televisions were tuned to coverage of Apollo 11's
mission to the moon. How did space exploration, once the
purview of rocket scientists, reach a larger audience
than My Three Sons? Why did a government program whose
standard operating procedure had been secrecy turn its
greatest achievement into a communal experience? In
Marketing the Moon, David Meerman Scott and Richard
Jurek tell the story of one of the most successful
marketing and public relations campaigns in history: the
selling of the Apollo program. Primed by science
fiction, magazine articles, and appearances by Wernher
von Braun on the ''Tomorrowland'' segments of the
Disneyland prime time television show, Americans were a
receptive audience for NASA's pioneering ''brand
journalism.'' Scott and Jurek describe sophisticated
efforts by NASA and its many contractors to market the
facts about space travel -- through press releases,
bylined articles, lavishly detailed background
materials, and fully produced radio and television
features -- rather than push an agenda. American
astronauts, who signed exclusive agreements with Life
magazine, became the heroic and patriotic faces of the
program. And there was some judicious product placement:
Hasselblad was the ''first camera on the moon''; Sony
cassette recorders and supplies of Tang were on board
the capsule; and astronauts were equipped with the
Exer-Genie personal exerciser. Everyone wanted a place
on the bandwagon. Generously illustrated with vintage
photographs, artwork, and advertisements, many never
published before, Marketing the Moon shows that when
Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind, it was
a triumph not just for American engineering and rocketry
but for American marketing and public relations. |
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