Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 1:01 PM
David,
Aside from the fact that advertising generally makes my skin crawl, who is going to see that advertising? Maybe a few spaceport techs on scoots might see the stuff while the cargo hauler is in port to link up to a new cargo container, but out in the deep dark? Even on optical scanners I'm thinking it would be pretty hard to see.
On the other hand (when you think about it), the sides of the cargo containers themselves are absolutely massive in relation to the GM Box Haulers. Plenty of room for some large, luscious visuals that might have some actual punch about a hundred klicks away on optical. Might even juice it up with some (relatively) short range audio/visual commercial broadcasts. But, of course you don't want to just waste that power for nothing, so these light shows and broadcasts would only come to life when passive sensors pick up passing space traffic within a certain range, and even then definitely not on essential communications wavelengths.
I'll see if I can work in an access hatch or two at the base of that locking tower.
Cheers,
- Ignatz
Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 1:28 PM
Ignatz,
Good thought. The box containers are much better canvases. Huge, inexpensive video displays are a thing in this future, so there's no reason why cargo containers couldn't have a range of commercials playing on them when sensors indicate there's someone near-enough to maybe see it. And static billboards are always a fine use of potential advert space.
Again, these would be ads targeting the thousands of spacers in and around a cargo transit vector monitoring sensor feeds, or who are actually out in space, doing work. Regular consumers wouldn't see them. Even trade magazines today, which most readers never even hear of, let alone read, are filled with ads. I don't think this would be much different.
I hate commercials and ads, too, but they're a factor in Stardrifter. Ejoq mentions them all the time in the stories; usually in an off-handed, dismissive sort of way, but they're definitely a presence in well-trafficked star systems.
Then again, if an ad on the side of a ship or cargo box will look weird or stupid in an illustration, then it shouldn't be there. I mean, it's just an idea.
-David
Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 2:06 PM
David,
Last thought for the evening here on my end of things.
I agree with your ideas about the box containers being great as inexpensive video displays. My only concern is in wondering if the garishness of the ads on the box would distract the eye from the cargo ship itself. Perhaps a moot point just now as the cargo containers aren't even built. But you are an enterprising young fellow and I assume you'll have a full dance card of advertisements just waiting to go when the haulers are hooked up to those new containers, ready for their first star jump.
Ciao,
- Ignatz