On Apollo 11's 50th Anniversary, This Ad Captures a Lifelong Fascination With Space

A young girl sits rapt in front of a black-and-white television screen as John F. Kennedy gives an impassioned speech about traveling to space to find “new hopes for knowledge and peace.” The U.S. will take on this world-changing goal “not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” That heralded talk, dubbed “We Choose to Go to the Moon” from 1962, serves as the spine of a commercial for an augmented reality app that recreates the Apollo 11 journey and highlights the former president as a visionary and prime mover in the space program. The spot, called “Full Circle,” shows the same youngster as a teen-ager watching the Saturn V rocket launch in 1969 on a slightly updated TV. Then, in her current-day adult life, she relives that historic moment and shares it with the next awe-struck generation via AR. [kickout id="1"] The ad aims to show “one woman’s fascination with space throughout her lifetime,” creators say, and link JFK to the Apollo 11 mission “through one of the many people he inspired.” The campaign, from Digitas and Unit9, will air through the summer in AMC theaters. It promotes the free JFK Moonshot app that’s packed with location-based, real-time and 3D features (users can pose with the spacecraft on its launch pad, for instance), along with more than 100 hours of previously unreleased video and audio material from NASA archives. The 50th anniversary of the Apollo launch was, to be exact, at 9:32 a.m. ET today, and creators demoed the app at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, sending a full-scale recreation of the 363-foot Saturn V rocket from Columbia Point over Dorchester Bay for a five-day virtual orbit to the moon and back. That translates to 120-plus hours of real-time tracking simulation. Here's a look at the Twitch livestream of today's Boston-based launch event: [kickout id="2"] The immersive app, sponsored by Raytheon, The Boeing Company and Bank of New York Mellon, among others, will hit school classrooms starting this fall. It's available for Apple and Android devices on iTunes and Google Play or directly at jfkmoonshot.org. CREDITS: Agency: Digitas CREATIVE Sue DeSilva, EVP/Executive Creative Director Mark Philip, VP, Group Creative Director Michael Walsh, Senior Art Director Jason Ziehm, Senior Copywriter Samantha Hodian, Art Director Matt Shoewalter, Associate Copywriter Brian Noyes, Senior Art Director Thom Crowley, Senior Copywriter Lyndsay Cooper, Associate Art Director Atit Shah, Co-Chief Creative Officer, NA Andrew Carlson, Co-Chief Creative Officer, NA Scott Donaton, Global Chief Creative and Content Officer PRODUCTION Peter McCann, SVP Head of Production Amber Harris, VP/Director, Executive Producer Reed Holtzmann, Associate Editor, Production Melanie Liu, Producer, Production Toar Winter, VP/Director, Executive Producer Annie Lefley, Sr Editor Sean Cardwell, Associate Editor Production Company: UNIT9 Films Director: Jonathan Pearson Executive Producer: Adam Dolman Producer: Geoff Stickler DOP: Gary Shaw Art Director: Chris Lightburn Jones Editor: Toby Conway-Hughes (Marshall Street Editors) Postproduction: ENVY ACCOUNT Lindsey Varney, Account Director Nicole Tatlow, VP/Group Account Director Robert Guay, EVP/Managing Director Melisa Levy, EVP/Managing Director PROJECT MANAGEMENT Aislynn Sherry, Manager, Project Management Judy Gough, Manager, Project Management TECHNOLOGY Keith Soljacich, VP/Group Director, Technology Jeffrey Crowe, VP/Director, Technology Jose-Pablo Chavarria, Associate Creative Engineer Marcelo Guzman, Sr. Front End Engineer Angela Rojas, Sr. Front End Engineer Carlos Aguilar, Sr. Front End Engineer Javier Avila, Sr. Software Engineer MEDIA Megan Jones, SVP Media Alex Binder, Associate Director, Paid Social Jency Barnes, Assoc. Director, Media Technology Honor Moshay, Analyst, Programmatic STRATEGY Allie Wassum, VP/Director, Social Strategy Bethany Bayer, SVP Creative Strategy Kylee Muir, Creative Strategist Sarah Mitus, Manager, Social Strategy Julia Agger, Assoc. Dir, Social Strategy DATA & ANALYSIS: Brianne Beyers, Manager Blake Hamblett, Analyst BUSINESS AFFAIRS: Dan Simonetti, VP/Director, Business Affairs Ramona Seunath, Manager, Business Affairs PRINT PRODUCTION: Greg Roger, Manager, Print Production Jennifer Clark, Assoc. Director, Print Production Sarah Whinnem, VP/Group Director, Print Production