Lexington, Ky., Makes a Tourism Pitch to Space Aliens

Take us to your leader. Then, we’ll check out some tourist attractions.

Adland’s space race keeps heating up. First, MoonPies tried to lure extraterrestrials with sweet, sweet snacks. Now, those pranksters at VisitLEX have beamed a tourism message 40 light years away to Trappist-1 system via infrared laser.

If green-hued E.T.s exist, perhaps they’d like to spend some greenbacks sampling the sights, sounds and flavors of Lexington, Ky. The eggheads in this cosmic case-study video break it down:

“We believe Lexington is the best place on Earth,” says VisitLEX president Mary Quinn Ramer. “It’s the ideal location for extraterrestrial travelers to begin exploring our world.”

She describes the region’s spacious bluegrass topography as “perfect for landing a spacecraft.” Plus, Conde Nast recently named Lexington one of America’s friendliest cities, so there’s little chance of sparking an interplanetary incident.

Astrobiology ace Dr. Robert Lodder, who helped agency Cornett develop the initiative, notes, “We brought together experts in engineering, linguistics, digital media, philosophy and science fiction to design, debate and transmit this message.” (Though oddly, not the Geico Gecko, who’s all about bonding with offworlders these days.)

The message itself includes photos, music and a coded bitmap—all transmitted, we’re assured, “with FAA approval.” (Wouldn’t want any ECDs going to jail.)

“The bitmap image is the key to it all,” says linguistics expert Dr. Andrew Byrd. “We included imagery representing the elements of life, our iconic Lexington rolling hills, and the molecular structure for water, bourbon and even dopamine—because Lexington is fun!”

Trappist-1 is 250 TRILLION miles away, so it’ll take 80 years at least for any response to arrive.

But that’s cool. Kentucky bourbon just gets better with age.