Hasta La Creative!

If there is intelligent life in space, it might get a little bit dumber in the coming weeks, as British scientists are reportedly preparing to blast a consumer-generated Doritos commercial its way. According to press reports, which don’t appear to be a joke, “the British public is being asked to shoot a 30-second ad about what they perceive life on Earth to be as part of Doritos’ ‘You Make It, We Play It’ user-generated-content campaign. The winning advert in the competition will be beamed past the Earth’s atmosphere, beyond our solar system and into the universe, to anyone ’out there’ that may be watching.” It’s one thing to beam a Beatles song into space, as NASA did recently. It’s another to bombard potentially hostile life-forms with a potato-chip commercial. Then again, if they’re advanced enough, they’ll surely be able to fast-forward through it without any trouble.

—Posted by Tim Nudd