"Pepsi-Cola Co.'s latest grab for our consumer small change may be coming in the form of a cosmic reality TV show. According to inside leaks to the ad-industry press, the company is currently in negotiations with the Russian Space Agency to buy a seat for an upcoming voyage into orbit. Executives at the company are proposing a program that would see contestants competing for a spot on a future Soyuz shuttle mission scheduled for sometime in 2004. The price tag for the expedition? An estimated $15 million for the ticket and another $10-20 million to promote the event.

If Pepsi follows through, it's in part because Coca-Cola raised the bar this year for corporate television sponsorship. Their success with the Fox hit American Idol could have TV viewers everywhere watching more and more hour-long product pitches weakly disguised as entertainment.

Pepsi's latest twist has its roots in other out-of-this-world marketing campaigns. In 1996, the Russians and Americans were enmeshed in a kind of capitalist star wars. As NASA's space shuttle Endeavor installed a Coca-Cola beverage dispenser for their crew, Pepsi-Cola was shooting the first zero-gravity commercial at the Russian Mir space station. (The ad featured space-walking cosmonauts and a four-foot-high replica of a Pepsi can.) Pizza Hut got in on the action a few years later when its logo tagged the side of a Russian rocket destined for the final frontier. With nowhere left to escape to, this could be the first sure proof that in space, nobody can hear you scream."

by Brooke Mc Donald in Adbusters#45 (2003)