If you head down to the beach this Thursday 26th April and spot a UFO, don’t be alarmed, the xenomorph won’t be making an appearance any time soon. The millennial pink ‘UFO’ you see hovering over Brighton Pier is visiting to celebrate National Alien Day. Yes, it’s a real thing!
Ok, you’ve got us, this is a publicity stunt for Swedish brand Foreo (if you snap the ‘UFO’ and share it with #WhatTheForeo on social, you could win one of their new UFO face mask devices). Brands do regularly get in on the act, but the day was actually started as a tribute to the Alien film series. Fact fans: it’s held on 26 April because that was the name of the moon where much of Ridley Scott’s second film, Aliens, is set. Before it was named Acheron, it was known as LV-426 and 4/26 is, of course, the American date-writing format, which we (correctly, obvs) know as 26/4.
This is all quite alien to us (sorry), but according to data from YouGov, we’re in the minority: over half of us Brits believe there is intelligent life out there on other planets. Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised by the stats given the number of apparent sightings in the area over the years (remember that one in Peacehaven or these in Brighton, Hove and Patcham?).
But it’s not just us in the UK, there are similar numbers of believers in Germany and the United States. And last year, the Pentagon admitted it invested $22m (£15.7m) in a secret five-year programme investigating UFOs.
Call us cynics, but we’re not convinced. Still, we’ll quite happily take the opportunity to have a marathon film session watching them all again. We still reckon Aliens is the best *ducks head*.
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