Marketing the moon : the selling of the Apollo lunar program / David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek ; with a foreword by Captain Eugene A. Cernan.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 126-129)

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 the Disneyland 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.