Marketing the Moon

In July 1969, ninety-four percent of American televisions were tuned to coverage ofApollo 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 whosestandard operating procedure had been secrecy turn its greatest achievement into a communalexperience? In Marketing the Moon, David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek tellthe story of one of the most successful marketing and public relations campaigns in history: theselling of the Apollo program.

Primed by science fiction, magazine articles, andappearances by Wernher von Braun on the "Tomorrowland" segments of theDisneyland prime time television show, Americans were a receptive audience forNASA's pioneering "brand journalism." Scott and Jurek describe sophisticated efforts byNASA 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 televisionfeatures -- rather than push an agenda. American astronauts, who signed exclusive agreements withLife magazine, became the heroic and patriotic faces of the program. And there was some judiciousproduct placement: Hasselblad was the "first camera on the moon"; Sony cassette recordersand supplies of Tang were on board the capsule; and astronauts were equipped with the Exer-Geniepersonal exerciser. Everyone wanted a place on the bandwagon.

Generouslyillustrated with vintage photographs, artwork, and advertisements, many never published before,Marketing the Moon shows that when Neil Armstrong took that giant leap formankind, it was a triumph not just for American engineering and rocketry but for American marketingand public relations.

David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist and the author of three bestselling books, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Real-Time Marketing, and Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. He lives in Lexington, Massachuetts. Richard Jurek has worked as a marketing and public relations executive for more than twenty years. He lives in Chicago. Both Scott and Jurek are among the leading collectors of space program artifacts. Gene Cernan is a retired United States Navy officer and a former NASA astronaut. He has been into space three times: as pilot of Gemini 9, as lunar module pilot of Apollo 1, and as commander of Apollo 17, the final Apollo lunar landing. He was the last man to set foot on the moon.