Digital advertising billboards being trialled in Japan are fitted with cameras that read the gender and age group of people looking at them to tailor their commercial messages.
The technology — reminiscent of the personalised advertisements in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi movie “Minority Report” — forms part of the Digital Signage Promotion Project, which is currently in a test phase. […] “The camera can distinguish a person’s sex and approximate age, even if the person only walks by in front of the display, at least if he or she looks at the screen for a second,” said a spokesman for the project.
If data for different locations is analysed, companies can provide interactive advertisements “which meet the interest of people who use the station at a certain time,” the project said in a statement.
That would be funny if it displays the age and sex it determines. I can see people walking around it!
This could have some interesting entertainment application.
If it could tell how much money you have in your bank account it would be an advertisers wet dream.
we are the borg, resistance is futile, you are targeted for advertising…
Do not want.
So, instead of perfecting the ads and trying to grasp the attention of a bigger and more diverse audience, hopefully selling the product to more people, they will just move the ads to rub them in the face of the audience that already pays attention to it?
Advertising isn’t becoming focused and optimized, it’s just becoming lazy.
It’s all just getting worse and worse.
Luc,
If you think that tailoring messages to individuals or ad-hoc small groups is less work than one size fits all, you need to try writing some copy.
I want to get a bunch of cross dressers and see what happens.
Oh the fun one could have with it.
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Black people will see a KFC ad. Young white people will see a cell phone ad. Old white people will see a Depends ad. Old Chinese people will see a banking ad. Mexicans will see a public assistance ad. Dirty homeless people won’t see any ad at all. Samoans will see a barbeque ad with a pig roasting. This is GREAT!