E-Paper On Cereal Boxes

coastin writes "Wired Mag has an article about electronics maker Siemens, readying a paper-thin electronic-display technology. They say it is so cheap it could replace conventional labels on disposable packaging. Imagine items on grocer's shelves that flash commercials at you as you walk by. From the article: 'When kids see flashing pictures on cereal boxes we don't expect them to just ask for the product, but to say, "I want it", said Axel Gerlt, an engineer at Siemens tasked with helping packaging companies implement the technology.'"

Comments

Can you think of a better way

[Anonymous Coward]

to alienate parents?

Epilepsy?

[slavemowgli]

Flashing stuff on boxes all over the supermarket? That's got to be a nightmare for those suffering from epilepsy.

How utterly depressing

[Toby The Economist]

> From the article: 'When kids see flashing pictures on cereal boxes we don't
> expect them to just ask for the product, but to say, "I want it", said Axel
> Gerlt, an engineer at Siemens tasked with helping packaging companies implement
> the technology.'

Western culture appears to have lost its vision.

New technology being thought of in terms of how much you can make a child coerce its parent into buying cereal?

We're amusing ourselves to death.

Re:How utterly depressing

[tomhudson]

Its illegal in my jurisdiction to have advertising (magazines, etc.) directed to children under 13.

This is over and above any broadcast requirements.

This could be a good thing if it gets parents more used to saying "Mo!" to their kids. After all, a pissed-off parent is already hostile to your product.

And I REALLY don't want to see the ads for Preparation H!

Re:How utterly depressing

[LithiumX]

Vision?

Haven't a great many of the popular advances in the 19th and 20th century been driven by marketing, and the desire to draw attention for purposes of profit? The earliest visions of the phograph's uses were more oriented towards automated marketing than towards the memoranda and music they were actually used for. Color printing was exclusively for the purpose of making product packaging more appealing, and television only became possible as a mass-market item when it was married to marketing (to this day, commercials are the life blood of the networks).

Early radio broadcasts were practically commerials with a thin veil of entertainment laid over them. It took a little while for radio commercials to seperate from the actual content (when they started announcing the products during frequent breaks, rather than the programs constantly hawking a product within a poorly contrived story).

Holograms were invented simply to see it done, but the bulk of the funding came from companies who sought to apply them as the new wonder-label (which turned out to remain prohibitively expensive for some time, and just never that appealing).

Western technology has been driven by three primary needs:
* direct threats - be it war, disease, famine, etc. Death avoidance.
* misguided ambition - attempting to create something unrealistic, and ending up with something unexpected (and often unnoticed for some time)
* commerce - the inherent desire to make people give you money

Altruism is a noble thing, but it's greed that makes the world actually turn.

Re:How utterly depressing

[SquadBoy]

All three of mine soon learned that whining was the best way *not* to get something. This remains one of the things their mother and I agree on.

Yes it takes *seriious* time and effort to do this but it is well worth it.

Re:How utterly depressing

[Seumas]

On the other hand. You, also, are full of shit.

There's nothing I hate more than sanctimonious prick parents saying things like "well, you have no children so shut your mouth and keep your opinions to yourself!" or even more drug addicts who say shit like "You've never been addicted to meth, so you don't know - shut your mouth!".

Look, I've never raised a kid (I've taken care of a number including my own siblings for great lengths of time over months or years, though) and it doesn't take a fucking rocket scientist to know certain truths . . . You know, like it's not hard to have a spine and raise your children without caving into their every want. Or... you know... you shouldn't beat your children or feed them ice cream every morning for breakfast.

In fact, parents (like drug users) are often some of the stupidest people on earth. I don't mean this as a flame or troll - but honestly, squirting out a kid is something that doesn't require any intelligence or qualification or wisdom. In fact, a lot of people might suggest that it's the least intelligent and prepared and qualified people that squirt out kids the most frequently.

Seriously - your comment is shit.

Harry Potter

[Deinhard]

Are we getting close to the moving photographs in the Harry Potter movies?

Seeing Nick Nolte's mug shot scowling out at me from a post office wall would be most disconcerting.

Then again, a moving poster of [insert favorite model here] would be most intriguing.

It's much worse than that...

[hackwrench]

New technology being though in terms of not how to inform consumers but how to bypass the most informed and target the least informed, depending on them to persuade the better informed. Note: the child frequently doesn't actually want the cereal itself in this particular situation, but just the pretty box.

I can't tell you how many boxes of Frosted Flakes I ate for the primary goal of getting the Disney Afternoon figurine inside. There were also numerous times I thought I wanted something, but didn't actually know what it was.

First things first

[mean pun]

Before we get all the useless and annoying applications of e-paper, could we please get something useful first: a comfortable e-book reader?

Pretty please?

Oh, and make it uncrippled. Yes, I'm looking at you, Sony.

Curse or Blessing?

[BeBoxer]

Part of me thinks e-paper is going to be really cool and will allow us to make some neat gadgets. But at the same time, I'm terrified of what the marketing folks are going to do with it. We are already at a point where advertising pervades our environment everywhere we go. When it all starts flashing and jumping and pointing and demanding our attention at all times I think I'm going to go totally insane. I really think I might just snap and actually go crazy. And I suspect I'm not alone.

Pathetic parents?

[Nutria]

When kids see flashing pictures on cereal boxes we don't expect them to just ask for the product, but to say, "I want it"

And I expect good parents to whack them upside the head until they say please.

And then whack them upside the head until they politely shut up after the parent says "No".

If Google has taught us anything...

[Trip Ericson]

...it's that in a world where all the advertisements are flashly, the plain one stands out.

Adult?

[Sv-Manowar]

I can see there being huge money in this for the first adult publication company to make moving porn magazines, or moving porn images on paper. The hype alone would eat up the initial cost in sales, and they could build up a huge brand on being the only one to offer it.

The adult industry was the original driving force behind the internet progressing, so who knows what will happen next. If theres money in it, you can guarantee that the big adult companies will come knocking on the door after a while.

ugh

[slashdotnickname]

Imagine items on grocer's shelves that flash commercials at you as you walk by

And imagine me walking to the nearest competitor that will not annoy me with real life pop-up adds.

Phillip K Dick got it right

[nycroft]

It seems that Phillip K. Dick's vision of a future where no one can escape annoying advertising is coming true. If we're not careful, Orwell's prediction of government controlled speech will come true. Oh wait...it already has.

I dont think so...

[mustafap]

E-Paper or not, these displays will need power. From batteries. What an environmental nightmare.

Re:Underrated

[cagle_.25]

I'm sorry; that's unbelievably simplistic. Or perhaps trollsome.

We're talking about advertisers intentionally making it *more* difficult for parents to instill discipline in their children, and you're blaming the parents?!

Reality check: being a parent of a two-year-old and a six-month-old means that you are devoting approximately 30% of your processor time already to making sure that the kids aren't (a) harming themselves, (b) harming others, (c) making a mess, (e) being properly fed and clothed, and (f) learning how to interact like reasonable human beings. That's the involved parents; the loser parents just ignore the kids until they scream.

Walking down the grocery store aisle with one kid in the seat and one kid walking means that *if* you want to actually choose a product and place it in the cart, you will have to stop holding the two-year-old's hand and focus on the products.

Your two-year-old, being smart like her daddy, might just decide that now is the optimal moment to go for something interesting, like flashing cereal boxes. Now what, Dr. Spock? I suppose you're going to "instill discipline" right there and she'll just straighten right up for you.

News flash: unless you want to make every infraction a capital [1] offense, your kid will buck your will on a regular basis. The smart parent will decide which battles are worth fighting and which ones are worth reasoning through ... and reasoning through with them takes time.

In short, getting a kid to the point where he or she has self-discipline requires ... um ... time and patience [2]. You have to have self-discipline yourself to pull it off, which means that you can't expect to press the magical "discipline" button and have them behave. Have fun raising your own kids.

[1] Nothing short of the death penalty will guarantee compliance. My daughter responds pretty well to time-outs, but I spent part of my childhood proving that my dad couldn't spank me hard enough to make me obey him.

[2] As in, I haven't had time for any hobby coding projects since my first daughter was born.