Water On Mars A Selling Opportunity
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday August 2, 2008
THE news from NASA is excellent: the Phoenix Mars mission has found water. Not only does this mean enterprising real estate agents have vast untouched acreage to advertise as water frontage (not to mention water views, and then water glimpses when those quarter-acre lots on the Martian arctic plains start going under the hammer), but the precious fluid itself can be used to enrich our lives back here on the home planet. We can see the slogans now: Mars water - it's out of this world. Marketers know consumers are prepared to pay a 1000 per cent mark-up to buy bottles of water allegedly from mineral springs on boring old Earth. What will they pay for water allegedly from a different planet?
The discovery provides hope, too, for Starbucks. The mission, we are certain, will find Mars's coffee culture is second-rate - fertile ground, then, for this enterprising chain. There's a reason those little men look green: they've been hanging out for a mugaccino.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald