Meta is promoting its VR headset with a 3D spaceman bursting out of London's most famous advertising billboard

• Meta unveiled a new 3D ad for its Meta Quest 2 VR headset on London's Piccadilly Circus.
• The immersive ad shows an astronaut reaching at the screen and a NFL player leaping at viewers.

Meta has unveiled a giant 3D advert this week on one of London's most famous billboards.

Meta's Reality Labs took over the Piccadilly Lights in the heart of London's West End to promote its Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset.

The advert, as part of Meta's "Wish for the Extraordinary" campaign, shows an astronaut reaching out of the screen, a rollercoaster, and an NFL player leaping towards viewers to catch a football.

Advertising on the billboard can cost more than $6 million a year, according to business news site Quartz, which estimates that about 72 million people pass the site a year.

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Chelsey Susan Kantor of Meta Quest said: "With this campaign, we wanted to capture the joy of having big, extraordinary wishes and actually having them come true with Quest 2."

She added: "Whether that's suiting up and taking to the skies as your favorite SuperHero or simply spending the afternoon at the International Space Station – it's all possible with VR."

Since 2019, the Facebook owner has pumped $36 billion into Reality Labs, according to an Insider analysis of Meta's financial filings. Reality Labs posted an operating loss of $9.4 billion in the first nine months of this year alone.

Reality Labs, which houses its metaverse, AR and VR units, used creative firm Buck to develop its AR filters.

Meta is also advertising the headset on an iMax theater next to Waterloo station and on Oxford Street in central London, as well as Manchester and Nottingham.

The Meta Quest 2 ad will run until the end of the year and it will be rolled out across the US as well.