The dawn of digital globe technologies like Google Earth has also opened new horizons in advertising. "Roofvertising," for example, is exactly what it sounds like: big horizontal billboards painted onto rooftops. Once practical only near airports, roofvertising is now worth big bucks, since it’s a free way for a company to brand its logo onto the aerial imagery that powers digital maps. But in 2006, in Rachel, Nevada, KFC invented "spacevertising"—the first advertisement so big it could be seen from orbit.
- In 2006, KFC unveiled a new "global re-image" for their brand, which now spans 14,000 restaurants in 80 different countries. Yes, their logo would still be iconic founder Harland Sanders, aka "the Colonel." But this was a slightly different Sanders: more sleekly designed, a little trimmer, apparently with a bit of mousse in his hair. This mildly hipsterized version of the Colonel would wear a red apron instead of his iconic white suit. (Think "foodie," not "plantation owner.")
- As part of the relaunch, KFC decided to make sure even aliens knew that their chicken was finger-lickin' good. (Or tentacle-lickin', or whatever aliens have.) A team of nearly fifty designers, scientists, and craftspeople spent three months putting Sanders's face onto the desert of Rachel, Nevada, a tiny town in the desert near Area 51. After the nearby tungsten mine closed in 1988, the town has tried to survive as a UFO-themed tourist destination, since it's located on Nevada State Route 375, the so-called "Extraterrestrial Highway" where many a flying saucer has been reported. Even the local watering hole in Rachel is called the Little A'Le'Inn. Get it?
- The giant Colonel Sanders image was assembled like a jigsaw puzzle out of 65,000 tiles, individually painted red, black, white, or beige. The finished "Face from Space" measured 87,500 square feet in area, a bigger footprint than St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The Colonel’s face was so big that it could hold all four of those other great Americans carved onto Mount Rushmore. In fact, it was the biggest logo in the history of advertising.
- Six months later, the giant ad was removed, though it stayed visible in online mapping imagery for years to come. But before the Colonel left, he made a lot of his customers happy with a secret message: 10,000 lucky winners each received a $1 KFC coupon for spotting the words "FINGER LICKIN' GOOD" hidden in the black tiles of his necktie. But none of the winners, as far as I'm aware, were from any planet other than Earth.