50 Years Later, The Moon Is Still Great For Business

Fifty years after humans first visited, businesses are still trying to make a buck off the moon.

Hundreds of millions of people were riveted when Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. Naturally, marketers jumped at the chance to sell products from cars and televisions, to cereal and a once-obscure powdered drink called Tang. They are at it again in 2019, as the 50th anniversary of the giant leap for mankind approaches.

There’s the cosmically priced $34,600 limited edition Omega Speedmaster, a tribute to the watch that Buzz Aldrin wore on the moon. And the more down-to-Earth Budweiser Discovery Reserve, which revives a recipe from the 1960s and features 11 symbolic stars in the packaging. There’s the playful NASA Apollo 11 lunar lander set from Lego. And Nabisco’s indulgent purple Marshmallow Moon Oreo cookies. And who doesn’t need “one small step” t-shirts, Saturn V crew socks or an Apollo 11 travel tumbler? But seriously, some brands take genuine pride at having been part of the first moon landing. Omega Speedmaster watches have been an icon of space travel since NASA chose them for its manned missions in 1965 after other watches failed tests. In 1970, the crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission used a Speedmaster to time a 14-second engine burn to align themselves for re-entry to Earth.

“It continues to be an important tool to have. You have to look only to the Apollo 13 mission,” said James Ragan, a retired NASA aerospace engineer who tested the watches in the 1960s. Omega’s gold Speedmaster is a version of the watches the company presented to astronauts at a gala dinner in 1969. A relatively more modest $9,650 stainless steel timepiece features a laser-engraved image of Aldrin descending from the lunar lander.