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Over the years we’ve sent a fair few culinary treats into space for our clients. Most famously, we advertised the World Pie Eating Championship in 2016 by launching a meat and potato pie, garnering hundreds of millions of views for the event across social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, as well as featuring in national print media and TV news programs across the world, all at a fraction of the cost of a traditional marketing exercise.
Compared to some of the items we’ve featured, the pie looks pretty simple. You’d be forgiven for thinking this may have been one of our easier launches — just put the pie in front of a camera and tie it to a weather balloon, right?
In fact, our work with food and drink has been some of the most challenging we’ve done, resulting in some surprisingly innovative solutions. Today we’re going to give you an insider’s view on sending food into space.
With all our flights, we want to keep the feature item intact and in place from launch to landing. Every flight has to live up to expectations, meaning the item has to look delicious even in the harshest of conditions.
How do we get the food space-ready?
Normally, we design and manufacture a mount with discrete attachment points, or use a combination of adhesives and bindings to firmly hold the item where we want it. Launching a pancake for Heart FM West Mids in celebration of Shrove Tuesday 2018 meant we had to experiment with a range of glues, gums, sealants and cements.
Most food items aren’t designed to be particularly robust. Keeping a flaky pastry intact means thinking outside the box. To send launch this Rowe’s Cornish Pasty, we designed a holder with spikes that protrude into the pasty at multiple angles. Then we froze the pasty in place on the stand to keep it together throughout the harsh conditions of the Near Space flight.
Nothing undermines an awesome image of the Earth from above like a sad-looking snack in front of it. To keep food looking appetising, we take tricks from film and TV prop experts to make the mouth water. These fish and chips, launched for Papa’s Fish & Chips in Hull, are fixed on a bed of wooden skewers and individually varnished and glued to do justice to the award-winning restaurant.
We’ve also sent the notorious Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake on a Charity Sky Dive to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust as well as Ben and Jerry’s special edition ice cream (Moooo’n Landin). One of the most popular launches we have conducted so far was for the Youtuber Niko Omilana, featuring a space-bound fast-food delivery consisting of a burger, pizza, and fries. You can watch the video here:
Fancy joining us on a trip to the stars?
Making food look this good in space is a mix of art and science and our team are uniquely prepared for the task. We’re certain there are companies out there who would love to see their food in space, who may have discounted their idea as crazy or impossible. We disagree. Visit Sent Into Space to check out some of our work, or get in touch directly and share your vision with us!