Doritos makes history with world's first extraterrestrial advert

June 12, 2008

Today Doritos makes history, taking the UK's first step in communicating with aliens as they broadcast the first ever advert directed towards potential extra terrestrial life. The University of Leicester has played a key part in the success of the project.

The transmission is being undertaken as part of the Doritos Broadcast Project, which invited the UK public to create a 30 second video clip that could be beamed out to the universe offering a snap shot of life on earth to anyone 'out there'. 61% of the UK public believe this is just the start of communication with ET life and that we will enter into regular communication with an alien species at some stage in the future.

The winning space-ad entitled 'Tribe' was voted for by the British public and directed by 25-year-old Matt Bowron. It will officially be entered into the Guinness Book of Records and will be aired on the more conventional medium of television on Sunday 15th June on ITV at 7.44pm in the ad break of the final Group B game of Euro 2008.

The message is being pulsed out over a six-hour period from high-powered radars at the EISCAT European space station in the Arctic Circle. The University of Leicester has also been involved in the project from its inception.

EISCAT Director, Professor Tony van Eyken who will oversee the transmission said: "The signal is directed at a solar system just 42 light years away from Earth, in the 'Ursa Major' or Great Bear Constellation. Its star is very similar to our Sun and hosts a habitable zone that could harbour small life supporting planets similar to ours."

Peter Charles, Head of the Doritos Broadcast Project said: "We are constantly looking to push the boundaries of advertising and this will go further than any brand has gone before. By broadcasting the winning ad to the Universe, Doritos is delivering a world first and Matt Bowron, the winner, will go down in advertising folklore. We also shouldn't be too surprised if the first aliens start arriving on planet Earth immediately demanding a bag of Doritos."

The broadcast received praise from Nick Pope, former Head of the MoD's UFO project. Nick, a leading authority on UFO sightings and alien abductions commented: "I support this bold new venture in space communication. As humanity reaches out to the stars, this broadcast could lead to us finding the real ET. This is a historic day in our continuing search for alien life."

Dr Darren Wright, a New Blood Lecturer of the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy said: "The Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group and Department of Physics and Astronomy as a whole at the University of Leicester has a very high international profile in the area of Space Physics.

"An important part of this project is that it provides an additional component to the Physics and Astronomy Department's ever increasing outreach programme. The ad to be transmitted has been created by the public following a national competition thus increasing public awareness of space activities.

"The University is particularly committed to outreach programmes along with the National Space Centre - the brainchild of the University of Leicester - and engaged in a number of programmes with the wider public."

Source: University of Leicester


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  • barakn - Jun 12, 2008
    • Rank: 3.2 / 5 (6)
    This is just disgusting. "Hello, aliens, we're brain-dead consumers. Please invade our planet."
  • Mercury_01 - Jun 12, 2008
    • Rank: 3.5 / 5 (4)
    This is emberrasing.
  • atrueoriginall - Jun 12, 2008
    • Rank: 1.7 / 5 (3)
    That Doritos thing is old news anyway. Someone said that a Belgium UFO looked like a Dorito and it stuck. So now every time that Belgium UFO comes up in the news or on the Internet, so does Dorito. Type (Dorito UFO) in search and you'll see what I mean. Dorito knows all about numbers and they saw the numbers in what happened with their name and the association with a UFO. Larry King Live had a special on UFOs, which included airline pilots, aviation experts, military and government officials and a UFO in Belgium that looked like a Dorito and it was given that name. In other words, there are no dummies in Dorito's advertising department.
  • atrueoriginall - Jun 12, 2008
    • Rank: 4 / 5 (4)
    What I'm more interested in is why PhysOrg posted this in their Space and Earth Science section. Don't they have a FuNnY pAgEs section?
  • OckhamsRazor - Jun 13, 2008
    • Rank: 3 / 5 (3)
    This is emberrasing.


    No...THAT is "embarrassing". :P
  • bmcghie - Jun 13, 2008
    • Rank: 3 / 5 (3)
    I know if I was being bombarded by radio waves from deep space that once I exerted a fair bit of time and effort to decode/decipher turned out to be adverts I'd be thinking about pointing several of the nastier kinds of weaponry at the annoying organisms that had the temerity to pollute wavelengths with that rubbish. Seriously people... let's do something a LITTLE more constructive with our deep space communications devices.
  • chaman - Jun 13, 2008
    • Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
    Story of dorito marketing stunt does not blow my skirt up. Plenty of messages have already been broadcast to the stars.
    Here's a interesting article on what is being done in terms of talking to E.T.:
    "Who Speaks for Earth?" http://www.seedma...page=all&p=y
  • ALZ - Jun 13, 2008
    • Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
    >Nick, a leading authority on UFO sightings and
    >alien abductions commented: "...This is a >historic day in our continuing search for alien
    >life."

    Long before you, Nich, such
    >historic day

    took place 16 times:

    Arecibo Message 1974 (one transmission)
    Cosmic Call 1999 (four transmissions)
    Teen Age 2001 (six transmissions)
    Cosmic Call 2003 (five transmissions),

    see Realized projects
    at: http://en.wikiped...ive_SETI

    especially the "47 UMa" lines in the table.
  • ALZ - Jun 13, 2008
    • Rank: 3 / 5 (1)
    >It will officially be entered into the
    >Guinness Book of Records

    I guess, four previous transmissions to Extraterrestrials:

    Arecibo Message 1974 (one transmission)
    Cosmic Call 1999 (four transmissions)
    Teen Age 2001 (six transmissions)
    Cosmic Call 2003 (five transmissions),

    are more preferable for
    >Guinness Book of Records
  • Mercury_01 - Jun 13, 2008
    • Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
    I would not give an alien dorritos, lest he throw up in my face. Id rather smoke him out.
  • DGBEACH - Jun 13, 2008
    • Rank: 3 / 5 (1)
    If they are an advanced civilization then I'm sure they'll have a "commercial skip" feature on their receivers -:)
  • RichardLalancette - Jun 15, 2008
    • Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
    I would have choosen another message for sure.
    But I find interesting that we are sending radio waves to communicate with civilisations that could be 100 000 years older than us.
    It's pretty much like if we were trying to contact Vancouver from Montreal, with smoke signals.

    Anyway, it's good to see the progress made toward ET Disclosure.

    Thanks for the article.

    Richard Lalancette
    http://RichardLal...spot.com
  • snwboardn - Jun 15, 2008
    • Rank: 4 / 5 (2)
    I know this is a little off topic, but you know what is funny? In most alien blockbusters the aliens are this civilization that goes around sucking up all the resources then moving to the next planet once they are all consumed. I was watching this show on the science channel about ways we could mine the moon. It dawned on me... We are the aliens that go about the universe consuming all the resources.
  • Oderfla - Jul 19, 2008
    • Rank: not rated yet
    What's the demographic?

  • vlam67 - Jul 19, 2008
    • Rank: not rated yet
    (ET transmission received by SETI)

    ...Earthlings, beware, you maybe classified by the Galactic Council as an interstellar spammer, and in danger of being exterminated by some galatic empires. To them, your "dorritos" is equivalent of offering your "pork" to your "Muslims". You have been warned!
  • jeffsaunders - Aug 14, 2008
    • Rank: not rated yet
    Dorrito is a corn chip right?

    I am sure that I better get one - especially if everyone else in the universe knows what they are.

June 12, 2008 all stories

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