Here’s a creative idea from Germany-based ad agency Jung von Matt. 
They recently designed a bus stop billboard that actually changes its image based on if you’re looking at it or not. The poster has a camera with built-in face recognition technology that identifies when a nearby person is looking at it or not. In this case, the ad – for Amnesty International – shows a picture of a couple together – man with his arm around the woman. But look away and the man in the ad appears to be physically assaulting the woman. The message: “It Happens When Nobody Is Watching.”
Pretty creative use of technology. Decent use of PR (as this was named ad one of the best NY Times’ 9th Annual Year in Ideas). However, they seemed to have missed the boat on one opportunity. While you can see a photo of this, why isn’t there a video somewhere (YouTube, perhaps) that demonstrates how this works and people’s reactions to it. That would provide an even better opportunity for people to help them spread their message even further.
Author: Tom Flynn III
www.lessingflynn.com
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hmmm, this is seems like the first step towards the reality Tom Cruise “Minority Report,” where the advertisements realized who he was and spoke directly to him. I thought of this movie the other day when I heard Nathan Wright speak about Augmented Reality, where you can get restaurant reviews just by showing a picture of a strip mall on your phone…seems like we are slowly migrating to what was once a Sci-Fi theme.
Thanks for the comment Pete. Augmented Reality? Now there’s a blog topic. I think the verdict is still out for me on that one. I guess I’m not sold on a bunch of people walking down the street that look like they are looking through View Masters. For the car maybe or as an enhancement to GPS devices like Onstar, etc. I could see some real benefits.