A city in Kentucky "invited" aliens to come with an insanely creative marketing campaign

Move over, billion-dollar brands. The most creative marketing campaign award goes to the city of Lexington, Kentucky. The team of VisitLEX has used an infrared laser to beam the invite message to the TRAPPIST-1 star system 40 light-years from Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64HOfu5p3ZI

What happened: 2024 has just started but we already have a contender for the most creative marketing campaign. The second-most-populous city in the state of Kentucky has launched an ad targeted at... aliens.

The city has gathered the prime space scientists and employed an infrared laser to make the point. Basically, the whole stunt would look great as an episode of Parks & Recreation. Imagine being an extraterrestrial living 40 light-years from Earth in another star system and receiving this:

Lexington doesn't mince words. Apart from including the prime numbers in the message and highlighting the elements of life, there are horses. Horses are key to understanding the city, it's the self-proclaimed "horse capital of the galaxy" now. And it's really hard to argue with that. No other horse capital has sent a message to space yet, so.

To charm the aliens even more, there's an audio sample by the local blue musician Tee Dee Young.

Explaining the campaign, VisitLEX president Mary Quinn Ramer said "We believe Lexington is the best place on Earth. It’s the ideal location for extraterrestrial travelers to begin exploring our world." It's hard to argue with that, maybe it's high time for everyone on Earth to visit Lexington too.

Why we love it: it's hard to say for a fact that the infrared laser beam was actually launched into space from the bluegrass landscapes of Lexington.

What's sure is that the marketing team of the city has produced an original, fun, and extremely clever piece of advertising.

An interactive page was created to promote the campaign.

It is very nicely done, with multiple engaging elements and full confidence in the message. Not only does it work as a cool stunt for the press to write about, but it's also a comprehensive way to market the city and its rich offer.