SA`s current hottest export, Mark Shuttleworth, is scheduled to blast off tomorrow on his $20 million jaunt in space. And, thanks to the media frenzy generated by the space mission, the Shuttleworth `brand` has gone universal.
By manfully enduring the rigors of Russian space training, Shuttleworth has managed to mingle machismo with geekdom, to emerge as a hero with broad-based appeal.
Tracy Burrows, Journalist, ITWeb
The SA media has apparently forgiven the 28-year-old IT mogul for `deserting` SA - and is now falling over itself to heap glowing praise on him as it covers every aspect of the trip. His mission has made the front pages of virtually every newspaper and news Web site in SA this week, with extensive radio and TV coverage too.
Although it turns out Shuttleworth is not strictly the first African in space, he is the first current African citizen and certainly the first South African in space. This, combined with extravagant publicity campaigns by Shuttleworth`s own people and the fact that he will conduct useful experiments while in space, has generated public interest on a level probably not seen in SA since the first moon landing.
His Web site (www.africaninspace.com) features letters of support from homesick expats and the gamut of SA`s citizens: from five-year-olds to 60-year-olds, from government ministers to schoolteachers.
By manfully enduring the rigors of Russian space training, Shuttleworth has managed to mingle machismo with geekdom, to emerge as a hero with broad-based appeal. He is also fast becoming one of SA`s most eligible bachelors. His Hip2B2 publicity campaign in the local media backs this new desirability with the underlying message: "brains are sexy".
Richer than Sir John
It doesn`t hurt that he was also recently listed among the UK`s richest people. (With an estimated cool lb187 million to his name - not including the lb200 million he donated to charity and used to set up the educational foundation TSF - Shuttleworth is apparently richer than entertainer Elton John.)
While the space mission may well be a fulfilment of Shuttleworth`s life-long dream and a good opportunity to promote South African interest in science and space, it also happens to generate the kind of spectacular free publicity that ad executives dream of.
By the time he returns to earth, Shuttleworth`s name and face will be entrenched in the minds of all news-watching South Africans and a fair chunk of the rest of the world. Best of all - the publicity is all positive - linked as it is with patriotism, noble exploration and good, clean science.
Shuttleworth`s every public word will be broadcast for weeks to come, firmly establishing his brand as a household name. While in space, he will link up with schools, so creating solid brand loyalty in the minds of the next generation of consumers and science boffins. His scientific interest is making him something of a pin-up boy for science, which has long suffered from bad press as a `dull` industry. And, the mere fact that he is South African means he has the full and vocal support of SA`s government.
This publicity could prove priceless, whatever Shuttleworth`s future business endeavours might be. How he uses it remains to be seen.
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