CMO battles invisibility to make fusion resonate

making nuclear – Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ CMO Joe Paluska is betting on creator-led storytelling and a phased 18-month campaign to build excitement for SPARC, an MIT-spun fusion effort with high-temperature superconducting magnets—despite the hard problem that fusion is la

On the road to turning on its SPARC fusion energy machine for the first time—expected next year—Commonwealth Fusion Systems has a problem that no amount of engineering can fully solve: the most important moment is not something people can easily see.

Joe Paluska. the chief marketing officer of the energy startup spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. put it bluntly. His CEO and board want him to make the project feel “as exciting as the lunar landing of 1969” or “as exciting as a SpaceX launch. ” but “the key difference is they have rockets and stuff that’s visible and compelling to watch on social media or TV” while he has “something that’s invisible.”.

The stakes are more than brand polish. CFS is aiming to commercialize zero-carbon nuclear fusion power using a process that fuses hydrogen nuclei with powerful. high-temperature superconducting magnets. Investor attention has already followed: the company has raised close to $3 billion from Google. Nvidia. and FootPrint Coalition. the venture capital firm co-founded with actor Robert Downey Jr.

Now Paluska is shifting the battle toward culture—especially younger audiences. CFS is working on a three-phased campaign over the next 18 months. beginning a build-up as the company moves toward turning SPARC on. Paluska said Gen Z and Gen Alpha approach the world with “a pretty dystopian view. ” shaped by climate change. political polarization in the US. and “increasingly other places.” When he talks about fusion. he said. the reaction is different: “when I talk to them about fusion. they have hope for the future.”.

To tap that hope, CFS says creators will play a key role. The company plans to ramp up outreach this year to creators across tech. entertainment. fashion. and food—an attempt to spread the word in a fusion ecosystem that Paluska described as sparse compared with the more visible nuclear fission corner. He referenced high-profile fission advocates including TikTok influencer Isabelle Boemeke. known as @isodope. and former Miss America and pro-nuclear energy activist Grace Stanke.

CFS’s first marketing push is planned as a “soft-launch” of a campaign dubbed “Humanity’s Power Move. ” developed with the San Francisco brand strategy firm Supermoon. Employees are set to begin work on it next month. and the company is also planning an all-company event called “Star Camp” on a mountain in Massachusetts—an idea Paluska described as a symbol of the technology moving one step closer to “building a star in a jar” on Earth.

The campaign calendar is loaded with high-visibility moments. CFS said it is planning more activity around Climate Week and the UN General Assembly in New York in September. the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January. and the energy conference CERAWeek in Houston in March. Paluska said specific media buys haven’t been confirmed. but he expects the effort will blend in-person support with online and out-of-home ads.

Behind the marketing comes another attempt to make fusion feel like a story people want to watch. CFS is in the early stages of working on a documentary with the creative agency 400 Humans. Paluska said he was inspired by science-based documentaries including “Good Night Oppy. ” about the Mars rover Opportunity; “The Thinking Game. ” which told the story of Google’s DeepMind; and “Nike: Breaking 2. ” which chronicled how the sports brand attempted to break the two-hour marathon barrier.

For Paluska, the goal is not entertainment for its own sake. “Turning SPARC on is the Kitty Hawk moment for fusion,” he said, linking it to the town where the Wright brothers achieved the first powered flight. “So we think it’s important to capture and tell this story to a worldwide audience.”

Still. turning a pre-commercial. infrastructure-level technology into something people want to talk about comes with risks—especially in an era where skepticism is baked in. Jeff Galak. an associate professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University. said CFS will have to tread carefully because Gen Z’s “primary relationship with energy is rooted in climate anxiety and utility-level pragmatism. not hype.” Making something “invisible” and pre-commercial “cool” to a generation “hyper-sensitive to greenwashing. ” Galak warned. is “an incredibly uphill. and likely ineffective. battle.”.

In the meantime. CFS is proceeding as if the story can do what magnets and physics are still preparing to do: close the distance between possibility and proof. When SPARC is expected to be turned on next year. Paluska’s campaign will have been running long enough to give the world a new habit—looking for fusion not as a distant concept. but as an unfolding moment people can follow.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems CFS Joe Paluska SPARC nuclear fusion high-temperature superconducting magnets marketing strategy creators Gen Z Gen Alpha FootPrint Coalition Robert Downey Jr. Supermoon 400 Humans Climate Week UN General Assembly Davos CERAWeek