IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 5

Book Reviews
Richard R. Weiner

Marketing the Moon: The Selling
of the Apollo Lunar Mission
By David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek.
Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press, 2014, 144 pp.

he sight of the stars
makes me dream of
"
the poetry of the heavens," wrote Lord Byron.
Men and women from
the beginning of human time have
gazed at the brightest object in
the night sky, the moon - gazing
at it until it feels that it gazes upon
us, burns within us. The image of
the moon persists as our constant
companion in our journey around
the sun. The stars, the moon, and
space have served also as an avenue of escape from earthly care,
from our human condition. And for
some it serves as a sense of our
role in the interstellar/intergalactic
universe, and perhaps the extension of the bounds of human possibility and desire.
Scott and Jurek's beautifully
mounted coffee table book - featuring over three hundred photos and
images - is a celebratory work. It
celebrates the branding of our lunar
gaze in the selling of the NASA's
Apollo Lunar Program to land a
man on the moon and bring him
safely back before the end of the
1960s. This was the new frontier
that President Kennedy brought us
to conceive of and surmount as
part of America's exceptional role
in the world. Getting Americans to

buy into this dream and endeavor was the result, Scott and Jurek
argue, of a pioneering set of public relations techniques. These are
techniques of the Mad Men - who
constitute what Max Horkheimer
and Theodor Adorno labeled the
culture industry. The particular
techniques chronicled have come
to be referred to as "brand journalism" and "content marketing":
driving the buzz; connecting with a
sense of authenticity and credibility
not spin; building target audience
participation not through repetition
of slogans but through developing a
sense of affinity with and participation in the program.
We are told that Dr. Wernher von
Braun - the key developer of the
Third Reich's V2 rocket and ballistic
missile programs and two decades
later Director of the Marshall Space
Flight Center - had "devoured" the
popular science fiction of Jules
Verne, Kurd Lasswitz, H.G. Wells,
and Hermann Oberth, and recognized such fantasy storytelling
could inspire others as it did him.
Already in 1955 and 1956, von
Braun appeared on Tomorrowland
episodes of the new ABC TV show
Disneyland. Von Braun, reflecting
upon Neil Armstrong's walk in July
1969, would say that the public
relations job of selling the Apollo
Program was crucial in securing
political support and funding. Von

T

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2015.2473978
Date of publication: 16 September 2015

september 2015

∕

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

Braun said that without the incessant public relations campaign "we
would have been unable to do it."
Brand journalism builds more
than awareness. It engages and positions a target audience, which in
the case of the Apollo program was
the American public. A public relations campaign set out to attach the
American public to the Apollo program through the power of a well-told
story. NASA's Public Affairs Office
(PAO), as developed at the end of the
1950s by Walter Bonney and in the
1960s by Julian Scheer, is presented
as "the first brand newsroom." For
Scott and Jurek this was a landmark
contribution to the history of advertising. PAO's mission was to brand
our lunar gaze in terms of NASA's
Apollo Program, building on the
public's fascination with all things
space travel and exploration. PAO
hired top journalists who had covered the early civil rights movement
and the Mercury space program that
preceded Apollo. Their mission was
not just to write press releases to
pitch to journalists, but to provide
newsworthy articles, background
materials, television newsreels, radio
broadcasts, sound effects, sponsored symposia, and scientific kits
for schools. They were to do so by
providing a receptive audience with
credible communications content:
concrete facts and incisive imagery
about space travel and exploration.

5



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - Cover1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - Cover2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 4
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 5
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 6
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 7
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 8
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 9
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 10
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 11
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 12
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 13
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 14
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 15
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 16
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 17
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 18
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 19
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 20
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 21
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 22
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 23
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 24
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 25
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 26
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 27
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 28
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 29
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 30
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 31
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 32
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 33
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 34
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 35
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 36
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 37
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 38
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 39
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 40
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 41
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 42
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 43
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 44
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 45
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 46
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 47
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 48
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 49
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 50
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 51
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 52
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 53
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 54
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 55
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 56
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 57
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 58
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 59
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 60
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 61
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 62
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 63
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 64
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 65
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 66
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 67
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 68
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 69
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 70
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 71
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 72
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 73
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 74
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 75
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 76
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 77
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 78
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 79
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 80
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 81
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 82
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 83
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 84
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 85
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 86
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 87
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 88
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - Cover3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2013
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com