UK potato company partners with upcoming movie

Albert Bartlett, a UK grower and packer of potatoes, has announced an official partnership with Twentieth Century Fox’s upcoming movie ‘The Martian,’ directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. Albert Bartlett and its ad agency HHM have created a press campaign and competition, which will launch on 16/17th September 2015 and will run in national newspapers through to end of October supporting the cinema release 30th September. Through the ad campaign, readers will be given the chance to enter a fantastic and exclusive competition to win an exciting prize; a 4-day trip to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex℠ in Orlando Florida for a family of four. Albert Bartlett will include £2000 spending money for the winning family.

Albert Bartlett will release a promotional press campaign designed by its agency HHM running from mid-September until end of November featuring national press ads and on pack stickers for over a million bags of potatoes for a month from mid September. Digital agency Guy & Co will create a microsite for Albert Bartlett for the competition to win the exclusive prize. Media planning and buying handled by Carat Edinburgh.

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meagre supplies, Watney must draw on his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “The Martian; home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible, rescue mission.

Upon finding the potatoes, Watney sets about growing a field of potatoes on which he will survive the following weeks. “I am the greatest botanist on this planet,” the marooned astronaut declares, whilst being on Mars alone.

Could you grow potatoes in space?
Back in 1995 potatoes were the first vegetable grown in space; astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia grew potatoes in its Astroculture plant growth facility. “American Ag-Tec International’s development of Quantum Tubers resulted from a NASA-sponsored Commercial Space Center located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,” says NASA.

During the making of The Martian in August 2015 NASA further announced that three American astronauts had sampled red romaine lettuce grown on board the International Space Station, demonstrating that sustainable supplies of fresh potatoes and other vegetables can be grown in micro-gravity inside the in-orbit plant growth facility.

The potato is a hardy crop and is easy to grow; Matt Damon’s character is an expert botanist so demonstrates his resilience and celebrates science by growing potatoes with supplies from his spaceship.

For more information:
Kate Wake-Walker
Wake-Walker PR
Tel: +44207 096 0445
Fax: +44207 720 2991
Email: wwpr@btconnect.com