Rethinking the Image

Image source: https://50ansdepubs.com/Pubs/pub.php?p=AudioVideo/Tevea/1064 (Accessed: 5 October 2025). © unknown

On 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins departed the Kennedy Space Center atop a Saturn V rocket^[1] with the objective of performing the first crewed lunar landing.^[2] Four days later, on 20 July, Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into the lunar module Eagle and began their descent; that evening, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon.^[1]

The event was one of the biggest in television history, viewed by an estimated 650 million people around the world.^[3] Space exploration was breaking new ground in broadcasting – two months earlier, the Apollo 10 mission saw the first live colour TV transmissions from space, while Apollo 11 was covered by the first all-night broadcast on British television.^[3]

This French-language press advertisement by TEVEA, a now-defunct consumer electronics brand, appeared later in the year to promote its range of colour televisions. In this image, a television set is superimposed onto the rocky, cratered surface of the moon, with its location further confirmed by the appearance of Earth on the horizon, appearing bright and luscious in contrast to the steely lunar terrain.

On closer inspection, the integrated legs of the television set resemble those of the lunar module Eagle,^[4] while its screen shows the launch of a Saturn V rocket in striking colour (colour TV was a recent development in itself, having been introduced in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom in 1967).

Through these unusual juxtapositions, this advertisement calls attention to the parallels between advances in consumer technology and developments in space exploration. The television set can be imagined as an unmanned spacecraft, recalling and processing its journey to the moon before embarking on its return to Earth.

The accompanying text below the main image explains that the television’s control panel allows the user to fine-tune its colour balance, along with a proclamation that roughly translates as ‘TEVEA is bringing colour television into a new era’. This advertisement, therefore, offers to the consumer the opportunity of being a participant in, as well as a spectator to, new and exciting technological advances.

[1] NASA (2019) July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap For Mankind. Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/history/july-20-1969-one-giant-leap-for-mankind/ (Accessed: 5 October 2025).

[2] NASA (no date) Apollo 11. Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/apollo-11/ (Accessed: 5 October 2025).

[3] Science and Media Museum (no date) From the Moon to Your Living Room: The Apollo 11 Broadcast. Available at: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/moon-to-living-room-apollo-11-broadcast (Accessed: 5 October 2025).

[4] See: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co40350/apollo-11-lunar-module-eagle-1969 (Accessed: 5 October 2025).