A great find from https://www.flickr.com/photos/2001archive/: the 2001: A Space Odyssey promotional comic that was included as part of children’s menus at Howard Johnson’s hotels!

One way that 2001 was ahead of its time that isn’t always talked about is in its promotional partnerships. It’s very typical for a movie these days to prominently feature a well known product or brand (LG phones or a 7-Eleven store, for instance) and in exchange that product or brand will do activations to promote the movie. 2001 partnered with many companies to help make the future depicted in the film feel more authentic. In return, some of them did… well… stuff like this.

I just love that this weird and immense movie was crammed into a comic on a kid’s menu. And also that despite how forward thinking 2001 was on many levels, this comic couldn’t quite grasp that maybe a young girl might want more from the future than passing out peanuts in zero-gravity.