Advertisements may begin popping up in airport bathrooms. The first of these ads have been installed in O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and may be on its way to other airport restrooms. The idea of the restroom ads is that a traveler will walk into an airport bathroom and see big, vertical display ads for products where mirrors are expected to be. When the person goes to the sink to wash his or her hands, the ads will become mirrors and the advertisement itself will shrink and move to a corner of a mirror. Thus, the traveler will be able to see their reflection in the mirror while the ad is also visible. The president of Mirrus, the company that manufactures and markets the mirrors, chose the ads to be in the bathrooms because the bathrooms are usually the place people stop at last before boarding a plan and the first place they enter when they get off a plane. These mirrors are already being used in sports arenas in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina.
I kind of have mixed feelings about having ads in the mirrors. On one hand, I feel like it's clever and I wouldn't mind it very much. When I was in China, there were little monitors above the urinal which allowed people to watch ads while doing their business, and I thought it was really cool because I didn't really have anything else to be doing while at the urinal. The ads were a nice twist to an everyday bodily function. However, on the other hand, I feel like there are too many places where advertisements are popping up and this is just another hassle to deal with. I'm really annoyed that Youtube has all these advertisements that they force one to watch before watching a video, and this has caused me to hate advertisements in general.
What do you guys think?
3 comments:
I agree with Tony, advertisements are everywhere nowadays. It's slightly annoying seeing ads all the time. You can't go on the internet without seeing ads on the sides of the pages or pop-ups with offers. But then again, it's not as if there's much to do when washing your hands so it's not that much of a bother.
Woooooooooooow! This is seriously blowing my mind right now. The company would have to install motion-detectors in the mirror itself, so that the advertisement would know when to minimize! Do they have to digitize the mirror, since (judging from the mechanics of the advertisement) the advertisement is showing up on a screen? Maybe I'm getting this totally wrong...
Anyway, I feel you Tony on the Youtube advertisements, but only because we have to physically delay ourselves from the content we want. However, these bathroom advertisements won't hinder us (unless something malfunctions...) or delay us in any way. And they may even lead us to a good investment. SO, I really like the idea.
Seriously? We're now being bombarded with advertisements in BATHROOMS? I think this is ridiculous - can people not be left in peace for even a couple of minutes? Granted, airport bathrooms aren't very conducive to privacy; but I don't see a reason to make them even more impersonal and more public by throwing ads in people's faces. At some point, we have to draw the line. There are enough ads lining airport walls. There's no need for them in bathroom mirrors.
I must, however, acknowledge the clever business tactic - everyone looks at their reflection in the mirror; thus, this new invention ensures that the ads are seen by all bathroom-goers (and who doesn't use the restroom before boarding a plane?)
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