They modernized the gas pumps at our local Speedway by adding video players. Instead of news like I've seen in California they play endless commercials and the volume is loud.
I remember stopping one time when it was twenty below zero this winter, no one was at the pumps and the same commercial was playing and not a single pump's sound was in sync with another. I felt like I was in a movie about a dystopian future.
It's a form of pollution, really - and a sign that there are a set of perverse incentives which can cause it.
Somewhere out there, advertisers are paying dollars for those commercials, and in many cases no-one is listening, or worse - it's causing active irritation to the people who are.
If you think of the commercials as oil, and the speaker systems and infrastructure as pipelines, then cases like this where commercials are on incessant loop are like an unbridled oil spill.
Unfortunately, many advertisers likely aren't metric-savvy enough to realize they're being scammed and not getting a return on their investment; the folks selling the airtime likely take a skim of their deals and use it to wine and dine the advertisers' own staff.
Purchase and persuade one or two layers of staff and management, and you're unlikely to get too much organizational pushback.
Instead, there should be costs placed on the measurable negative externalities here: the stress caused to people who experience this noise pollution, the devaluation of the otherwise quiet, productive environments it seeps into, and the opportunity cost from the resources wasted on building the infrastructure to make it possible in the first place.
Ever seen someone hold up a piece of technology and say "this is the future?" What did they mean?
Did they mean that they were holding in their hand, somehow, the actual future? That their hand was in tomorrow? No, they did not. What they meant was that the item they were holding would become commonplace in the future.
Think of a technology that became widespread from small beginnings. Let's use electricity as our example. There was a time when electricity was only available to the consumer in some large cities. One could have then said that electricity was the future. When people said that, did they mean that electricity had someone traveled back in time? No, they did not. What they meant was that in the future, electricity would be more commonplace, more widespread. In that situation, in some places - place with freely available electricity - the future had already arrived. In some places - places without freely available electricity - the future had not yet arrived. The future was unevenly distributed.
This isn't Metafilter.
It is Hacker News, though. Expecting people hanging around Hacker News to be familiar with some of the Hacker canon and culture isn't unrealistic.
You don’t see these in Canada but I am always flabberghasted by them while in the US. I noticed that holding my finger over the tiny speaker hole greatly reduced the volume, and I resolved to carry a roll of duct tape with me so I could do some public service next time I had to deal with them.
Reminds me of Col. Bat Guano refusing to shoot the Coca-Cola machine so Col. Mandrake can call the President.
"Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you? You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company."
Heaven forbid one to employ civil disobedience, or even to take non-destructive steps, in order to tamp down offensive, irritating aspects of daily life.
I ran into a pump in MI last summer that wouldn't even turn on until it finished playing the first 30 second commercial. Eventually, I could start pumping but it continued to play obnoxious ads throughout. I won't be filling up there anymore.
Just wait until they start adding cameras that detect whether you're actually looking at the commercial or not, and pause the commercial when you're not paying attention.
I'd link to the relevant Black Mirror episode, but I'm sure we've all seen it.
Ha, "pause the video"... What you meant to say was "pause the video and gas".
> Dear <CUSTOMER NAME>,
> Your gas filling experience has been subsidized by our advertising partners (though of course the price went up 10% because we have to build tech to support this), as a result we are currently unable to supply gasoline while the pump based advertising is not being observed. You may contact your local gas station attendant but sadly due to our desire to comply with <HIPAA/other unrelated regulation> they will be unable to abort the ad servicing. Please be aware that the Terms of Service for this pump may change without warning and that by using our gas pump you have agreed to purchase at least one item featured in the advertising roll - failure to do so will be considered a breach of contract and may result in a fine of up to $100,000.
> Here at Friendly Gas we're all about maximizing the value to the customer!
> Thank you for your service,
> John Smith, Friendly Gas CEO
And... it might be a bit hard to enforce the breach of contract portion, but pretty sure everything else in that is legal in today's world.
On all the pumps near me, the second from the top on the right side mutes the video. Some gas station attendants or kind customers thought to write "Mute" on the button in sharpie, and I encourage everyone to do the same.
I wouldn't condone vandalism -- despite however justified you may feel it is, plus it would have the opposite effect: I don't want whoever create those demon machines to know we know where the mute button is.
They have these at the station I use along my commute. I also find it quite annoying.
Pro tip I came across online a bit back: pressing one of the buttons on the right will mute the screen. In my experience the button one down from the top on the right works.
On the pumps near me it's on the right, one button up from the bottom. Rather annoying that they (intentionally, I can only assume) are not labeled or give any other indication of their function. One station in my area keeps having to put new plexiglass covers over the video screens as people keep defacing/breaking them... I wonder why?
Your customers payments for a service and other companies payments to deliver advertising material are completely independent processes. There's no reason to choose only one when you can choose both.
I am familiar with the expression "no publicity is bad publicity" but... honestly pushing your product in these sorts of swill advertising venues seems like it's in danger of building up customer distrust and anger.
Yea still... "Try our product because we're great and we'll annoy the crap out of you until you do" might be a good way to mind-worm the advertising into someone but it doesn't exactly engender good will.
It's like one of those companies that feels the right to force a full page ad on websites that needs to stay up for x seconds, or requires some special user interaction. It is (very unfortunately) effective and making people remember your brand but people hate you for it.
> I felt like I was in a movie about a dystopian future.
or, go to a random non-high-end department store or supermarket in Japan. Every couple of meters there's a ghetto blaster advertising something with "background" music on full blast, while there is already loud background music from the store itself. Extreme levels of cacophony and one of the couple of things I hate about that place with a passion.
I remember stopping one time when it was twenty below zero this winter, no one was at the pumps and the same commercial was playing and not a single pump's sound was in sync with another. I felt like I was in a movie about a dystopian future.