Pepsi considers using satellites to project advertising in night sky

Pepsi has consulted with a Russian start-up which is proposing to display commercials in the night sky. Photo / Supplied

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's a commercial disrupting your view of the night sky brought to you by soft drink company Pepsi.

The global beverage company has reportedly consulted with a Russian space start-up that is proposing to use low-orbit satellites to brandish the sky with advertisements.

Pepsi said its Russian subsidiary agreed to a partnership with StartRocket for an "exploratory test for stratosphere advertisements" to advertise its energy drink Adrenaline Rush, reports The Independent.

Though the soft drink company has said it will not follow through with the pitch.

StartRocket proposes to use a number of micro satellites to project company and brand logos into low-Earth orbit.

The start-up's website shows illustrations of how the logos would appear, floating across the night sky.

"Space has to be beautiful," the company's site says. "With the best brands our sky will amaze us every night."

StartRocket says the "orbital display" media will access a potential audience of seven billion people from around the world.

"The display orbits on 400-500km altitude and lets us deliver three to four messages/images a day, having a viewable area of 50km2 using the sun as a light source," the site says.

The concept has been slammed on social media with some Twitter users threatening to boycott Pepsi if the idea goes ahead, while other comments say it is simply more pollution in the sky.

"Horrible concept," said Twitter user Jane Bourjau. "I will boycott any brand that does it."

In the comments thread on the article that appeared on The Independent, one user likened their disgust to the concept to the controversial commercial campaign by Pepsi that used supermodel Kendall Jenner in an ad about protests against racism.

"This is their worst idea since hiring Kendal 'zero IQ' Jenner to fix all racism everywhere using their teeth rotting chemical muck," the comment said.

StartRocket says on its website it will charge A$280,000 ($299,399) to display the orbital advert for eight hours.

A cool A$700,000 will give your brand 10 days in the sky.

The start-up is seeking A$27.9 million to make the advertising a reality, though the technology is yet to be tested.