The authors of Marketing the Moon cite Disney’s Tomorrowland as a diversion that helped families imagine the possibility of spaceflight.
A controversial, exclusive deal with Life gave the magazine access to the first astronauts and their families in exchange for massive life insurance policies.
“I love my collection of press kits from contractors,” says Scott. “I’ve got about 50 of them from companies that worked on some aspect of Apollo like Boeing, IBM, Raytheon, Omega Watches ... Each one was lovingly created to showcase what that company did for the program.”
Handsome, all-American astronauts from the Apollo 15 mission appear on the Dick Cavett show in 1971. During NASA’s decades-long “Super Bowl moment” the men who went to the moon were hounded by reporters.
Companies contracted by NASA, in an attempt to garner more detailed press, sent reporters complicated diagrams showing how and when their components would be used.
A memo from Paul Haney, director of public affairs at NASA, to Alan Shepard, one of the first men on the moon. “Read it very closely,” says Jurek. “Haney, an ex-journalist, is standing up for the right of the American people to experience their space program in an unedited, un-scripted manner.”
An advertisement for Omega watches; the careful wording reflects that while advertisers could mention products’ use by NASA, any suggestion of endorsement was forbidden.