Sunday, February 25, 2007
THE ODD CORNER
Interactive urinal communicator.
It’s not just a freaky phrase; it’s the latest weapon in fighting drunken driving.
Faced with one of the nation’s highest rates of alcohol-related traffic deaths, safety officials in New Mexico recently bought about 500 of the talking urinal displays with the hope that the displays will nudge tipsy men toward getting a cab or a ride from a sober driver instead of driving drunk.
If nothing else, the devices just may scare the pee out of them.
ON YOUR MARK
Back in the fall, when I wrote that advertising had gotten to the point where we might see it on toilet paper and toilet seats, I didn’t know how close to the truth I was.
Enter the Wizmark Interactive Urinal Communicator, a plastic, deodorizing microprocessor-controlled electronic display with a 3.5-inch screen.
The devices’ creator, bio engineer Dr. Richard “There is no more captive audience than a man at a urinal” Deutsch designed it based on the unwritten rule of men’s room etiquette: Don’t look at the guy next to you. So, what else have guys got to do than stare at an ad over the urinal drain?
But it goes beyond that. The contraption delivers a “very audible” message that starts, “Hey there big guy” and asks if the whizzer thinks he’s had too much to drink. The voice suggests the whizzer get a ride home and ends with “Remember, your future is in your hand” — a blush-inducing image given that they’re at the urinal.
I can only imagine the experience, seeing as I’ve never used a urinal. But the scenarios have more comedic potential than Jon Stewart reflecting on the Bush administration.
First of all, the idea is that you have a drunk guy trying to aim his willie at a urinal that then starts chatting him up.
I can hear the poor fool now, “My god, I must be drunk, the urinal is talking to me.” Or the guy’s so trashed, he actually believes someone is living in the plumbing. You’ve heard of rats and alligators in the sewers; why not a concerned citizen who warns about the dangers of driving drunk?
The displays can be designed to also sing or flash a string of lights around the message.
Can you imagine what that would do to those guys who already are “pee shy”? I’m betting they’ll need therapy for post-traumatic stress after an encounter with one of those babies.
Similar talking urinal cakes with anti-drug or anti-drunken driving messages have been used in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Long Island and Australia.
It’s a brilliant strategy. I imagine something bigger and better for the home market: Talking toilet seats. They’d come with prerecorded messages, such as “flush, bonehead!” “Change the roll if you use the last sheet of toilet paper!” and the always-popular womanly admonishment: “Put down the lid!”
That might not be as important as saving people from drunken driving. But it just might save a few relationships.
Reach Repository writer Angie Gent at (330) 580-8326 or e-mail:
angie.gent@cantonrep.com
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