• Science Daily, Monday, March 10, 2008 11:01 AM

An attempt to broadcast the first ad into space is underway, with Britons being asked to shoot a 30-second ad about life on earth for Doritos "You Make It, We Play It" user-generated campaign. The winning spot will be beamed past the earth's atmosphere and beyond the solar system, while also running on terrestrial TV. The transmission is aimed a solar system 42 light years away that is thought to have a zone that could support life as we know it.

The ad will travel at the speed of light, passing the moon in 1.2 seconds and beyond Pluto in less than six hours. Professor Tony van Eyken, Director of EISCAT Space Centre in Svalbard, Norway, says that "Broadcasting an advert extra-terrestrially is a big and exciting step for everyone on Earth as up until now, we only tend to listen for incoming transmissions."

While there are reports that NASA once beamed a Beatles song toward the Polaris star system, "it's highly unlikely it will ever be received by extra-terrestrials," he said. "With the transmission technology and planning we are employing there is a much greater chance that the Doritos advert will potentially be seen by any alien life form."

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