The Wall Street Journal says that Dunkin’ Donuts is experimenting with video screens that use facial recognition technology to figure out your age and gender. The screens then display ads targeted specifically to you.
Creepy!
Dunkin’ Donuts is also tailoring the cash register ads to your specific purchase. If you buy a breakfast sandwich, you can expect an ad prompting you to return “for a coffee break in the afternoon” to “try an oven-toasted pizza.” The system is already in place at two Buffalo, NY locations.
More creepiness from the WSJ:
In a separate test, Procter & Gamble is placing radio-frequency identification tags on products at a Metro Extra retail store in Germany so that when a customer pulls the product off the shelf, a digital screen at eye level changes its message. When a consumer picks out a shampoo for a particular type of hair, for instance, the screen recommends the most appropriate conditioner or other hair products, says John Paulson, president of G2 Interactive, a digital-marketing arm of WPP Group’s G2 Network.
This comes as advertisers are spending more of their ad dollars on in-store marketing. Audience fragmentation and the waning power of television ads are forcing marketers to make their pitches and tout their brands when and where consumers are closer to making a purchase: in the store.
The WSJ says that the companies experimenting with this kind of technology “hope to ward off any potential privacy issues by not capturing and storing any personally identifiable information about consumers.” What do you think? Is this an invasion of your privacy? Or would you rather see more relevant ads?
The Ad Changes With the Shopper In Front of It [WSJ]
(Photo: stirwise )
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It’s not an invasion of privacy, but an invasion of my personal mental space. I liken the issue to the issue of celebrities and paparrazi. Where do you stand on this? Should they be contained by laws of some sort? Prevented from following & shouting at celebrities? There IS a certain expectation of being left alone when you are in public. Having a computer calling out to you is not very much different.
Any merchant that does this can count me out as a customer. (I swear I have the strength to give up donuts! Really! Really I do!)
Next time I walk into a Dunkin Donuts, I’m going to wear a skimask and sunglasses. Perhaps a nylon stocking over my head.
“Are you here to rob us?”
“No, I just don’t want to be targeted by your ads.”
Oh wait… That’s right… They don’t HAVE any Dunkin Donuts in Southern California.
“Or would you rather see more relevant ads?”
I don’t want to see any fucking ads. Enough. I don’t even have a TV yet still get deluged with honking in-my-face crap soon as I enter a subway station or go to the grocery store nevermind all the shit pitched at me online. I can’t even go to a fucking concert without AT&T ads projected on the roof and fucking Comcast and Saab banners on each side of the stage.
Fuck advertising. It’s an industry with no reason to fucking exist other than to suck money from a client who’s been duped into thinking this shit is still even marginally effective. Fuck off.
Come on! Beam ads into our brains as we sleep!
@Canino:
The vast majority of advertisers are selling none of those things.
So what do they do? They try to use images of sex, beer, and steak to sell whatever the fuck else.
You’re only fooling fools, and you’re pissing everyone else off!
Refer to George Saunders’ “My Flamboyant Grandson” for the best and most relevant commentary on this topic. I believe it’s in his book In Persuasion Nation.
To me, the main issue is the levels they’re willing to go with this stuff. To me, it’s a matter of complexity and obfuscation. By obfuscation, I don’t mean that someone is necessarily trying to hide the data, I mean that the specifics as to how privacy is protected aren’t mentioned, or are buried amongst other technical details. The devil is in the details, as they say. Even if they don’t keep a record of my name or address doesn’t mean they don’t create a profile of me.
In these specific examples, there are some issues. With the cameras, there’s huge potential for data mining. Even if they don’t keep a picture of me, I won’t be surprised if they store the demographics of the ages and genders buy what at what time.
With the RFID chips, they might be able to use the RFID chips to see what’s in the cart, and track my movement through the store. If all they want is to know when a product is picked up, couldn’t they just sense when the weight of the shelf changes? Rather than putting chips into every single product sold, wouldn’t this idea be cheaper?
It’s not so much that they’re trying to find new ways to advertise; I just wish some companies would put the same amount of effort into improving their services.
Perfect, I’ll just go get donuts with my parents on a Saturday morning with my kids and watch the system crash and burn as it tries to show ads for individuals between the ages of 4 and 60.
“Didn’t you have ads in the 20th century?”
“Not in our dreams! Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ballgames. And on buses. And milk cartons. And t-shirts. And bananas. And written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree!”
Neither. Stop overloading me with your crappy advertisements. Do these people really think this crap works. They must if they keep doing it.
God help us all.
@samandiriel: “every store would have to have access to your personal private info and to do that you’d have had to authorize it’s release at some point. And I would imagine much like mailing and call lists you didn’t realize you’d be getting on when you filled out your catalog order, you could get your info wiped on request.”
Your naivete is charming. Truly. By the time you track them down and politely jump through the necessary hoops to get off their list, your information has already been sold, traded, and rented out to innumerable other people who in turn have sold, traded, and rented it out to others …
I look about 10 to 12 years younger than my true age, which is 31. On top of that, I am only 5’4. It should be funny when the ads are like “Glad you are out of school, dude? Have a coolata!”
@lostsynapse: V for Vendetta available on DVD??
Seriously though, this invasive marketing BS will piss people off more than it will boost sales. When will businesses realize that it’s not necessary to have ads in peoples faces EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY to run a successful company and *gasp* – make money!
I hope there is a huge revolt against this kind of stuff, I’ll be happy to join the protest.
@ViperBorg: ” Do these people really think this crap works. They must if they keep doing it.”
It DOES work. If you read about how advertising works in the brain, you’d realize that no one is immune. It doesn’t work the way one would think it works or guess at how it works. It insidious.
@testsicles: “Dunkin’ Donuts makes for a tasty but inferior lube.”
True frosting may be inferior, but their product, donuts are softer and quite moist… so despite the small hole in the middle… a high quality lube isn’t necessary. Frosting, jelly or Bavarian cream should be adequate.
/your local lube salesman
What happens when there is too much advertisement? No one noticed it any more….
And wait until hackers will have fun with such ads. I cannot wait =P
My relationship with advertising and other means of purchase suggestion is kinda complicated. On one hand, most of it just gets in my way and pisses me off, on the other hand, sometimes I find out about a product that perfectly fits my needs at that moment or reminds me about something I needed.
That kind of timely advice can be priceless, but so is my privacy. I am just as likely to get upset over an ad as I am to be delighted – because they are so randomly targeted. What’s a capitalist consumer to do?
Meredith no likey. My gender= female. Age= early 20s. This of course means that if this technology were to become widespread, I’d be bombarded with ads tailored to my “interests”, which to marketers seems to mean weight loss, weight loss, shiny hair, weight loss, flawless makeup, and more weight loss. Like I don’t get enough of that offensive bullshit from Facebook (although I’ve now escaped that annoyance by changing my gender to “no gender specified”, something I wouldn’t be able to do without heavy cosmetic surgery with this new technology)
@Canino: LOL!!!
That was perfect, considering I’m a vegetarian who doesn’t drink and has the lowest sex drive of anyone I know… Seriously, you couldn’t have guessed it any better (worse)
@The_IT_Crone: Well, they say they won’t be recording personal information, but if they are using a face recognition system, how can they not? After all they will no doubt file your face and use it to compare to all shoppers coming into a store. It isn’t long after that that you go to pay for a purchase with your credit card and the facial recognition software can now link you to the credit card information. And then in the future, when you enter the store, they will have a history of things you’ve purchased previously, and won’t it be scary when it starts making recommendations before you even reach for something on the shelf?
Three comments:
- Before they start this ad-in-yer-face crap, they should study the automated sales things that holler ads at you while you pump gas. They are beat to hell, and for good reason. The most common comment heard when those things cut on? “STFU! [*WHAM!*]“
- I won’t shop anywhere I find these things.
- If I can’t avoid shopping somewhere these things are, I will start a meme to bring back stylish retro hats with veils. (Hatman, were he still with us on the Consumerist banner, would approve.)
@PunditGuy: The “futurist” was Philip K. Dick.
[en.wikipedia.org])
I feel old because I remember when grocery store checkout dividers were just a hunk of rubber and not a freaking commercial. Oh, the good old days.
Next time I go, I’ll take the dog and hold him out front. Let’s see what the software makes of *that*.
My local DD has something much better: the employees.
When my wife walks in, they hold up one or two fingers, for how many would she like. They already know what she wants.
And they always include the cardboard carrier. Why? Because my wife and I drink the coffee and the dog shreds the carrier. It’s hours of fun. And great service.
I would understand this more if this were not a place that sells doughnuts. What is the computer going to do? “Male, 42-45, African-American — cue commercial for doughnut.” “Female, 26-30, Caucasian — cue commercial for doughnut.” “Female, 50-55, Latina — cue commercial for doughnut.” Yeah, great investment, DD.
waste. of. money.
tailoring ads to me doesn’t mean I want to see them – they’re still ads.
Heh, this is just the start of the scenario presented in the movie “Minority Report”
I wasn’t happy when one of these displayed Maxim, Neutrogena hand cream and kleenex when I stepped up to it….hope nobody connected the dots.
Any ad based on guessing my demographic is almost 100% guaranteed to be a waste of time. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind something that suggested things in the manner of Amazon’s “people who bought this product also bought xxx” or “xxx% of the people who looked at this bought yyy”. That’s one of the principles of selling, and it’s based on my shopping behavior, not some marketing misconception. I might even appreciate being reminded to buy batteries, refills or what have you, and if I can can get a discount, it’s even better.
(I’ve bought hundreds of things from Amazon, including two lawn mowers, but I’ve never bought anything they’ve recommended for me.)
I hate Fuckin’ Donuts. Just go to Krispy Kreme or Tim Hortons and leave them to rot in hell.
“I brought a donut and the guy gave me a reciept for the donut. I don’t need a receipt for the donut, I give you the money, you give me the donut, end of transaction. We do not need to bring ink and paper into this. I can not imagine the senerio where I would have to prove that I brought a donut. Some skeptical friend. Don’t even act like I didn’t get that donut. I got the documentation right here.” – Mitch Hedberg