CAPITALIZING ON THE POSITIVE IMAGE OF SPACE EXPLORATION : AN UNEXPLOITED POTENTIAL

摘要

In this paper, we describe and analyze the completely ignored topic of the exploitation of an emotionally powerful space asset: space exploration imagery. We consider in particular its usage in advertisement for non-space sectors products. It is made evident that this usage is a prevalent phenomenon, from small scale actions to huge, multidimensional, campaigns. These campaigns, tapping largely into actual space imagery or directly referring to space exploration symbols have in common the attempt to generate positive associations with those symbols and through this, benefits. The objective of this paper is to raise the attention to the capital and value vested in this space imagery patrimony, largely unexploited by the main actors who collaborated to generate it. We collect and analyze a sample of ads, showing an intense usage of this asset by a very diverse and broad spectrum of products, trying to connect with the fantasies and capitalize on the large public interest in the space theme. We observe that this intense usage is most of the time independent of the sources of these images, sometimes even 'doctoring' recognizable logos to keep the association vivid, while avoiding legal intricacies about acceptable uses. We conclude that it is important to recognize the potential value of this asset, in particular in terms of image recognition and acceptation by a public constituency in the case of agencies, and suggest that it would be beneficial to work on improvements of the actors' involvement in managing this asset.