The Chasing UFOs team. (Photo: National Geographic)

It’s one thing to fake intergalactic advertising like the hoaxsters at Rolling Rock did back in 2008 with moonvertising, but actually carrying through with the plan is a whole other thing entirely. When the National Geographic channel heard about Tweets in Space, a program spearheaded by two artists who plan to beam tweets to planet GJ667Cc, they decided to jump on the bandwagon. But, of course, it’s not all in the name of science.

The Daily Dot reports that National Geographic has teamed up with Tweets in Space to transmit tweets with the hashtag #ChasingUFOs to promote its new show called–yes–Chasing UFOs.

Writes The Daily Dot:

Any tweets tagged #ChasingUFOs that are sent in the seven hours after 8pm ET on June 29 will be rolled into National Geographic’s transmission. The nonprofit is sending the tweets in response to the Wow! Signal, a 72-second transmission from space picked up by Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in 1977. National Geographic is also sending several video messages from filmmakers, musicians and scientists among others.

Somehow this isn’t at all how we imagined first contact would go.

Jessica Roy is a reporter for Betabeat and the New York Observer. Follow Jessica on Twitter or via RSS. jroy@observer.com