NEW YORK — Fifty years after humans first visited, businesses are still trying to make a buck off the moon.
"It continues to be an important tool to have. You have to look only to the Apollo 13 mission," said James Ragan, a retired NASA aerospace engineer who tested the watches in the 1960s. Back in 1969, both Omega and Fisher Space Pen Co. were quick to promote their Apollo 11 connections with media and advertising campaigns, as were NASA contractors like Boeing and General Electric.
In 1969, Zippo released a lighter saluting the Apollo 11 mission and its astronauts. A half-century later, Zippo has sold out of the 14,000 limited edition lighters released in tribute to the anniversary, priced at $100 each. "Since 1972, human space travel has been dead boring. We've gone around and around and around the Earth a whole bunch of times, and that is not interesting to people," said David Meerman Scott, a marketing strategist and co-author of the book"Marketing the Moon," which chronicles the public relations efforts that went into the Apollo 11 mission.
"It's about giving kids something aspirational, where they can see themselves, versus trying to project them into a historical moment," said Michael McNally, senior director of brand relations at Lego.