As film formulations improve and providers – with occasional nudges from forward-thinking customers – continually push the envelope with more creative applications, wraps will continually evolve into more expansive, visual-communication arenas. Mossy Oak (West Point, MS), a multi-faceted company that provides an array of products and services for hunting, camping and outdoor enthusiasts, had its in-house graphics team promote its newest camouflage pattern, Shadow Grass Blades, in an unusual way: they inflated a weather balloon, built a contraption to send the balloon into space, and wrapped it with 3M™’s Controltac™ IJ180Cv3-10 air-release media. They also installed a weatherproof video camera to document its ascent for a YouTube posting.
The balloon made it approximately 100,000 ft. into the air; the camera beautifully captures the gradually increasing distance from the ground. After approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, the balloon popped, and the apparatus began a 30-minute descent towards terra firma. It landed approximately 30 miles from its original launching point, and the graphics returned virtually unblemished. Could wrapped satellites, rockets and other extraterrestrial-bound projectiles be on a creatively inclined customer’s radar? Who knows?
To watch the balloon’s journey, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7_W_RQPKxVY