Interstellar Advertising
One of my favorite scenes in Wes Anderson's film Asteroid City involves the awarding of prizes at a Junior Stargazer convention.
A polished and highly-decorated general is giving out awards from a stage in front of an audience of parents, guardians, schoolchildren and military personnel.
The banner behind the make-shift stage has stars, comets and rockets and reads -
Asteroid Day 1955
Sponsored by
The U.S. Military-Science Research and Exploration Division
And the LARKINGS Division
"For a Powerful America"
Various awards are handed out by the general including -
The Collapsing Star Ribbon of Success
The Black Hole Badge of Triumph
The Red Giant Sash of Honor
The Distant Nebula Laurel Crown
The White Dwarf Medal of Achievement
This last one (White Dwarf) is given to Woodrow Steenbeck "for his work in the sphere of astronomical imaging".
Here is how Woodrow’s project demo plays out in the script -
Woodrow steps back, double-checks a list in his notebook. He clicks a switch, illuminating a circle of lightbulbs. A hologram of the moon, the size of a beachball appears at the center of the device, rotating slowly, pocked with crisply-rendered craters.
Not yet finished, Woodrow drops a small glass slide into a slot, casting an image of the American Flag onto the surface of the hologram moon.
He points up. Everyone looks.
In the clear, afternoon sky: the American flag appears in full color on the surface of the actual moon itself.
Spontaneous, giddy applause.
Woodrow says calmly:
"It may have applications in the development of interstellar advertising."
ADVERTISING ON THE MOON!
FOR A POWERFUL AMERICA!
The scene made me laugh because it is such a weird and well-observed send up of a middle school science fair. Steenbeck prototyped a (very) long-distance ad server and he put a brand on the moon.
IMO, Asteroid City ranks right up there with Moonrise Kingdom and The French Dispatch as one of Anderson's best films.
Watch it in the theater if you can. If you can’t, read the script here:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Asteroid_City/zNy8EAAAQBAJ
