This year marks the 50th anniversary of the moon landing – and Shutterstock has found the perfect way to utilize the occasion in its latest marketing campaign.

The ad begins with what appears to be a quotidian commemorative ad. “50 years ago, humanity took to the stars, and landed on the moon,” it says, inspirational piano music steadily playing in the background.

“Which definitely happened,” they cheekily add.

The moon footage starts to glitch, a greenscreen background showing through.

But if it didn’t…” the piano music fades out, a deeper beat starting to pulse…

“You could totally pull it off with Shutterstock — and it would be way more out of this world.”

The beat drops – cue a funky montage of dancing astronauts and a space cat, to the tune of a bopping club breakdown. The ad even cuts out with a moonwalking astronaut. (See what they did there?)

Not only did Shutterstock ingeniously capitalize off a popular conspiracy theory, using it to add intrigue and humor to their advertisement, but they also demonstrated a significant marketing lesson: images are central to storytelling. The following infographic shares tips on why you should use images in your next marketing campaign to tell your story!

Images Infographic

Source: 6 Powerful Reasons Why you Should include Images in your Marketing – Infographic