CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – The GAP company’s latest ‘1969’ ad campaign has caused more than a few space enthusiasts to text OMG! after the apparel retailer used a photo of a space shuttle instead of the Apollo program’s Saturn V rocket.
Of course, it is well known to Brevard County residents on Florida’s Space Coast that the massive Saturn V rocket was launching astronauts to the moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1969 – and not the space shuttle.
The space shuttle program’s first launch was not until 1981 and the orange external tank depicted in the GAP ad wasn’t used until the third launch in 1983 (the first two space shuttle external tanks were painted white). Popular Science was able to narrow down the era of the shuttle design even further to somewhere between 1998 and 2011.
After the company tweeted the photo and received feedback from followers pointing out that the wrong rocket was used, GAP defended using the space shuttle photo in the the ad campaign:
“1969 is included in most of our ad pics. Its the year we opened, not meant to be the shuttle launch date. Sorry for confusion.”
Image credit: GAP via Twitter.
