Toilet gaming technology targets urinal boredom

[Gerald]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15923438

Note: 28 November 2011 Last updated at 14:47 GMT

[Buddahaid]

All right. Just how big of a bladder do you need to get bored. And are those touch screens?

[vienna]

Years ago, there used to be urinal cakes (sanitizers) with targets imprinted on/in them. Personally, when I'm in the bog, I just want to be done and gone and I certainly don't wish to "tweet" about my lavatory "achievemnts". This smacks of those overhead displays at check-out lines tried out years ago in supermarkets; they seem to have vanished from the scene, for the most part. I suspect this will also, if it ever really gets off the ground. Marketers and ad agencies seem to believe there cannot be any moment of our time in which we should not be exposed to their adverts. I am usually of the mind that if I feel imposed upon by unwanted adverts, I make a mental note not to buy the advertised product or service. In the case of this "advance", I may be tempted, if I am alone, to alter my aim and see if I can't short the damned thing out...

[Jimbuna]

Aw come on...dredging for posts now

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by vienna

Marketers and ad agencies seem to believe there cannot be any moment of our time in which we should not be exposed to their adverts. I am usually of the mind that if I feel imposed upon by unwanted adverts, I make a mental note not to buy the advertised product or service. In the case of this "advance", I may be tempted, if I am alone, to alter my aim and see if I can't short the damned thing out...

Well I don't know about you, but nothing makes me want to buy a product more than the continual unconscious association of it with all the sights, sounds, and... er... let's just call it "ambience" of the typical public restroom.


Seriously though I'm not of the opinion either that "any publicity is good publicity" when it comes to getting a brand name "out there" with advertising. I've heard the saying that even an awful ad is good if it's awful enough in some way to get enough people talking about it, but frankly there are a couple places whose doorways I've never darkened because they once ran ad campaigns that I absolutely hated and which were apparently ubiquitous and therefore unavoidable. Long after the ads changed, I still associate the brand with how much I hated those ads.

[Jimbuna]

Toilet Humour....at best

[vienna]

Seriously though I'm not of the opinion either that "any publicity is good publicity" when it comes to getting a brand name "out there" with advertising. I've heard the saying that even an awful ad is good if it's awful enough in some way to get enough people talking about it, but frankly there are a couple places whose doorways I've never darkened because they once ran ad campaigns that I absolutely hated and which were apparently ubiquitous and therefore unavoidable. Long after the ads changed, I still associate the brand with how much I hated those ads.

Sometimes it makes one wonder if the advertisers are really even aware at how off putting their ad campaigns can be to the audience at large. There is a local mattress store chain that continually puts out what they seem to believe are clever ads. Not only are the ads the same tired jokes over and over gain, the stores' owner (who appers in the ads) is of the school that volume equals quality; the most jarring annoyance is to be watching a serious program or listening to good music on the radio, only to have the mood broken by some clown raving at top volume. Add to this his screeching tag line ("We'll beat anyone's price or your mattres is FREEEEEE!!!!") and the fact the ads are on day and night and often (I actually heard the same ad repeated 4 times in the span of 1 hour on a local station recently) and I not only will not buy from him, I will go out of my way to avoid his stores. It is so bad, in a front page story about annoyances in the Los Angeles Times a few years back, the writer singled out the ads as one of his pet peeves...