The seamless launch of the Falcon Heavy by Elon Musk’s SpaceX initiative last week is an impressive success: the rocket is incredibly big and powerful, and its technical advancement is such that NASA is now interested in purchasing some of its next flights.

That’s an extraordinary accomplishment. But what really struck me is the branding and advertising feat attached to it. As is widely known, the Falcon Heavy brought to space Elon’s Musk personal Tesla Roadster, and the car is possibly bound to remain fully exposed in orbit for… a billion years.

That is totally unprecedented. So far, the most long-lasting brand campaigns were just measured in decades. No marketer has ever planned in terms of million years, and no human has probably ever imagined to project his or her creations on a billion-year time frame.

That’s exactly what Musk has done. With a mannequin driver called Starman at the wheel, the cherry red Tesla will move past Mars and then set on a heliocentric orbit where it will stay for an almost inconceivable length of time.

Is this advertising? The etymology of the word – which comes from Latin (advertere) and means make aware, call one’s attention toward – supports this idea up to a point. The orbiting Tesla would represent an ad if someone were there to see it and be surprised by its incongruous presence.

Sure, as Musk himself tweeted half-jokingly, sooner or later the car might be spotted by alien eyes. But even if that’s not going to happen, the branding effect has already started. The sleek red car endlessly rotating in space will accompany our lives and make the Tesla name part of our imagination forever.