MARS — A Super Bowl ad campaign launched this month by the home carbonation machine manufacturing company SodaStream makes it clear there's life — and water — on Mars.

SodaStream began a Super Bowl countdown by capitalizing on Martian life — in Mars, Pa.

“People of Mars: We come bearing gifts,” a recent SodaStream advertisement reads.

With a black SodaStream standing like a 21st century spaceship on a Martian landscape, the ad calls on real Martians to tweet at “@SodaStreamUSA” on Super Bowl Sunday.

“Mars residents who tweet at SodaStream on Feb. 2 will receive a free SodaStream,” said Shiri Hellmann, vice president of marketing at SodaStream. “So, they can make fresh sparkling water anytime.”

The nuance is in the name.

“It shows how an unusual town name can grab people's attention,” said Gregg Hartung, mayor of Mars.

SodaStream launched a campaign “teaser” Jan. 23 in which Bill Nye the Science Guy contemplates the idea of sending humans to Mars.

On Jan. 29, SodaStream released an extended spot following astronauts on their mission to find water on Mars.

SodaStream's advertising company, Alison Brod Marketing + Communications, took the campaign a step further: It helped it touch down locally by calling on Butler County's real-life Martians.

“Since the ad is all about exploring Mars, SodaStream is doubling down on the planetary fun,” Hellmann said. “Both ads ladder up to the larger SodaStream Super Bowl campaign.”

The extended spot once again features Nye as well as Alyssa Carson, an 18-year-old astrobiology student with a pilot's license and space travel certification. Carson is the youngest astronaut in the world training for a Mars mission.

SodaStream's Super Bowl spot is a 30-second version of the Mars commercial.

SodaStream has also purchased an ad in the Butler Eagle. This is a way to reach out to a real Martian community, Hellmann said.

“The ultimate goal for our Super Bowl spot is to entertain,” Hellmann said. “But SodaStream also has a big focus on the environment.”

The commercial ends with a somber promise: “By 2025, SodaStream will eliminate 67 billion single-use bottles on this planet. So, we don't have to go looking for a new one.”

That message is one Mars Borough can get behind, Hartung said. The borough has made its own efforts toward environmental preservation, such as the work it's done on the Breakneck Creek watershed restoration project.

It's also been turning plastic waste into community assets. The Mars Centennial Lions Club helped the borough obtain a Trex Outdoor bench in September 2019. Trex benches are manufactured out of about 500 pounds of recycled plastic, which are melted down and compressed into Polywood.

“We got our first bench made from recycling plastic bags,” Hartung said.

The club can get the borough a bench every six months through recycling.

The Mars SodaStream campaign brings an international scientific question to the kitchen table: Is there water on Mars? And if there is, what does it taste like?

It probably won't taste like the water in Mars; the borough owns its own water system and regularly tests it to meet DEP standards.

“It is fed by four wells,” Hartung said, “and is quality water.”

SodaStream has no immediate plans to further explore Mars. But after all, its mission was never just about space exploration.

“We wanted to be the most talked about brand in Mars,” Hellmann said, “Pennsylvania.”

There has been something bubbling in the local Martian atmosphere, Hartung said. As mayor, he's been encouraging residents to be part of the Twitter campaign.

“It will be fun to see what type of buzz it creates,” Hartung said. “It is an interesting opportunity to relate to a major event via a commercial.”

SodaStream's social media team will contact Martians who participate in the social media campaign Sunday.

After confirming participants have a Mars address, team members will notify individuals through social media that they've won a machine and discuss shipping arrangements.

A YouTube version of the full Mars commercial can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUxDxLu21UQ.