October 01, 2004

• Bad news: Yet another imposition into our lives by our corporate overloards. Plus, imagine a row of these screetching irritations going off at once. Good news: I might get to piss on Carrot Top.
• This is just wrong in my opinion. I wouldn't like it at all. Its wrong on many levels, its crude, its rude and intrusive. Seems to me that advertising in this manner, is childish and in bad taste. Of course thats just my opinion, I am sure there are people who would find it a novel, delightful experience.
• I think it's wonderful. As a non-TV-owning, anti-capitalist, non-materialistic, business-hating old first generation punk I can think of no more appropriate place for the despicable, bottom-feeding filth of the corporate world to place their intrusive little whorings. I can piss on them when I'm in a good mood and the rest of the time I can smash the fucking things to pieces with a few well-aimed kicks from my trusty DMs. Now that's what I call adbusting, junior.
• Only marginally related, but- Can everyone else read nytimes articles? Every time one comes up I try a dozen or so accounts from bugmenot, and none of them ever work.
• I can see the strip club version now... (female voice)"Oh yeah, baby. Keep your eyes forward. Keep it coming. Let it all out, I want it all."
• Well, dammit, I shall use the sink!
• I'd pay for shawnj's version. $1.95 a minute, say.
• isn't the erectile function incompatable with the peeing function?
• Who said anything about peeing erections?
• What Decani said. I've made an habit of avoiding those brands/services with the most obnoxious, degrading, ubiquitous assault campaigns. Now, if it was like that MIT urinal-videogame thingy from some months ago, I'd try it... ooops..!
• Actually, thinking about this idea more, this would be a great tool for pranks. GUY walks up to urinal. Starts URINAL CAKE: "Hey! What are you doing! You're getting it all over me!" -------------------------------- GUY walks up to urinal. Starts URINAL CAKE: (Nelson Muntz laugh) -------------------------------- GUY walks up to urinal. Starts URINAL CAKE: Mmm, tastes like chicken! -------------------------------- GUY walks up to urinal. Starts URINAL CAKE: Whoa, slow down on the vitamins, please! -------------------------------- GUY walks up to urinal. Starts URINAL CAKE: Your boyfriend is a lucky man. -------------------------------- GUY walks up to urinal. Starts URINAL CAKE: Aaaah! It burns!
• if i had something to advertise, i wouldn't want people peeing all over it. smallish bear, sullivan knows the trick for accessing/posting nyt links with no registration. i tried searching for it but can't find it now. sully?? you out there??
• I swear that I'll break the first one of these things that I'm subjected to. Can you imagine having to really go after holding it in for a while, and getting repeatedly bombarded with messages that are activated by the elimination of bodily waste? It's going to be embarrasing because people will know where you are at all times, which stall you're in, how long you're in there (because you know it'll keep going off, trying to advertise more crap to you) -- this will draw attention to the person who's just trying to perform a private bodily function and doesn't want or need to have attention drawn to that process. Also, I feel sorry for the person who has to repair/maintain these things. Yum.
• AH! found it http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink actually that's for posting links to blogs, but i imagine if you insert the NYT link there you'll get a link that's accessible w/o registration
• How is this any worse than the wall-mounted adverts that are pretty much ubiquitous now? Because they talk? That's hardly an "assault." If they bother you to the point of vandalism, try a stall, it's about five steps away.
• mct, I was just extrapolating from the Viagra and stripper voice comments... though I guess if one did a PSA for prostate cancer awareness, that could be a nice bit of fun.
• Oh, I thought you were talking about that time I masturbated into a public urinal. Which I didn't do. No matter what TenaciousPettle tells you. He's a fucking liar.
• So many questions left unanswered, like:

  - Who's going to change the batteries?

• I'm just wondering how long it'll take some adventurous person to decide to steal a few of them and re-engineer them to say something other than what was originally recorded, preferably negative commentary on the crappy company being advertised. "Ford cars give you cancer of the balls. Please, put down your weapon and never, ever purchase a Ford vehicle again."
• How is this any worse than the wall-mounted adverts that are pretty much ubiquitous now? Because they talk? That's hardly an "assault." If they bother you to the point of vandalism, try a stall, it's about five steps away. Fes, maybe you didn't read the article? The inventor is working on a way to put it in toilets so that women can't escape it either. If they put them in the toilets in the women's bathroom, they're bound to put it in the men's toilets, in the stalls, sooner or later. And I can close my eyes or look at something else if I don't want to see print ads, but it's a little difficult to plug both ears with my fingers when my hands are busy preparing for or cleaning up after bodily functions. Print ads don't point out to everyone in the bathroom how long I've been in there or where I'm at, if I'm in a stall. The article says the device "is sensitive to changes in light and has a tendency to go off with even the slightest bit of movement, which can prompt red flashing lights, crunchy guitar chords and a commercial announcement." You and I both know that it won't stop at going off just once, oh, no, but everytime you make the slightest detectable movement, in order to maximize selling potential. I'm just wondering how long it'll take some adventurous person to decide to steal a few of them and re-engineer them to say something other than what was originally recorded, preferably negative commentary on the crappy company being advertised. "Ford cars give you cancer of the balls. Please, put down your weapon and never, ever purchase a Ford vehicle again." Now, that's a great idea, like the Barbies that people altered to say, "Dead men tell no lies," and then put back onto store shelves.
• I am wondering what sort of important consumerist decisions I make when using urinals. I'd never thought about it before, but now that I have, I must admit to preferring to shop in places that have good lavatories. My anti-commercial defenses are at their lowest when I'm unclenched and relaxed after a long twenty minutes of holding it in... holy shit, this urinal-marketing thing is a great idea! Absolute genius!
• Fes, maybe you didn't read the article? And maybe I did. I too am "working on" a variety of interesting things, none of which will ever come to fruition. When inventors say it, it means even less than when I say it :) But nevertheless: so what? Sure, they're noisy little doodads. You mean to tell me you've never been in a bathroom that had commercial radio playing at full volume? With 75 spots an hour? Same principle, except this one you can pee on. All kidding aside, it's just *advertising*. If you are offended by urinal thingamabobs haranguing you to buy this or that, exercise your ultimate right as a consumer and don't patronize that place or buy the product it advertises. Contrary to what people seem to believe, we are not all mindless automatons that must purchase everything we are told like zombies with Amex. Don't like it? Don't buy it, and don't patronize places that sell it and advertise it. Complain to the management. If enough people feel as you do, your pub will discontinue the pee-verts.
• Well, dammit, I shall use the sink! BEESWACKY! Well! I am so shocked! This, from YOU of all people. I expect it from those young louts, but from a gentleman of your mature years. Since you did say it, I suppose there's only one thing to do about it .... Monkeyfilter: Well, dammit, I shall use the sink! hee hee hee
• Beautious, Warrior. you've managed to find the trigger for the bestest um like stuff and shit..... Bluie has it right: Well, dammit, I shall use the sink! I would totally buy a tshirt that said that, tracicle
• Fes, I can see your point, and I agree that we're not mere automatons who'll buy whatever they advertise (I sometimes tend to believe a lot of kids are that way... but we grow out of it.) The point is, can't we have 30 seconds of (relative) peace and quiet while we relieve ourselves? Must *everything* become commodified? I'm interested in how this will affect people with "shy bladders." The advertisement blaring away is a definite indication that you're there. Peeing. (or whatever) Will that help them pee by covering up the noise, or just make it worse? (Yeah, I used to yell "I can hear you pee!" to such friends. I'm evil.)
• Unflushed Urinals Lines written in the Omaha bus station Seeing them, I recognize the contempt Some men have for themselves. This man, for instance, zipping quickly up, head turned, Like a bystander innocent of his own piss. And here comes one to repair himself at the mirror, Patting down damp, sparse hairs, suspiciously still black, Poor bantam cock of a man, jaunty at one a.m., perfumed, undiscourageabke... O the saintly forbearance of these mirrors! The acceptingness of the washbowls, in which we absolve ourselves! -- Donald Justice
• Great poem, as usual, Bees. Amazing how the poets can elevate any subject out of the toilet and into the sublime.
• Talking urinals introduced in the US
• At the airport recently I was startled to hear a life-like female voice, seemingly in the queue behind me. It was an announcement only. Enough with the privacy busting Chatty Cathy bits :(