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Nestle's GPS Tracking Candy Campaign
colinneagle writes "In a cool yet creepy marketing campaign, Nestle plans to stalk UK consumers. The company kicked off a unique promotion called 'We will find you' that involves GPS trackers embedded in chocolate bars. When a winning consumer opens the wrapper, it activates and notifies the prize team who promises to track them down within 24 hours to deliver a check for £10,000. A Nestle spokesman added that 'inside their wrappers, the GPS-enabled bars looked just like normal chocolate bars.'"
In Soviet Russia, YOU find chocolate!
I won roughly $200 from a lottery, and the guy who was supposed to find me used 14 days to deliver the prize. He sent an email saying that I had won those money and just to register at a site to win the prize. I thought it was an attempt to scam me for money, so I made his job very hard. It didn't help when the company in question changed its name. I wondered what on earth was going on.
Wonder how long before someone stars running up and down candy store aisles with a metal detector.
Anyone who's ever used a GPS, especially not a dedicated device e.g. a smartphone, knows that it's a bit of a mission to get the thing to actually lock on to sattelites. If one was really paranoid one could just carry one's chocolate in a metal box until one gets home, then the GPS will never lock on anyway. So I doubt there are any real privacy implications here...
One thing I know, and that is that I am ignorant...
I hope that a winning bar is taken by a soldier to the front-line in Afghanistan. I'd love to see Nestle track them down and deliver the cheque within 24 hours!
This post was removed due to Dice content standards violations.
Its that pervo Willy Wonka after kids again.
obligatory reference yet. For extra bonus points, let's theorize about what the prize claimant will have to do as part of the claims process.
Write failed: Broken pipe
Augustus Gloop Veruca Salt Violet Beauregarde Mike Teavee and Charlie Bucket.
If you live there get five friends with metal detectors to canvas stores. Increase your chances.
So, do I get more money if I hide the wrapper in a Faraday cage so that they can't find me?
What happens if I open the bar in the street, and throw the wrapper? Will they track down the garbage?
The article is a bit light on the details...
And yes, this is quite creepy. The article talks about a similar promotion in Brazil. A country with a high crime rate. Turns out people were a bit suspicious of strangers knocking on their doors...
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Any chance of a promotion to track down the parents of kids who've died in the third world due to the heavy, illegal promition of powdered milk there?
A way while back there was a very similar attempt by Coke to put a GPS in a coke can, and swoop in and award the winner.
This raised a lot of security concerns, as there are many places where it would be bad for this to go off in, such as inside a military base.
Links:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/03/09/30/189208/track-a-soda-can-with-gps
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/04/05/06/136205/gps-cell-phone-in-soda-can-form
What do I win if they can't find me? I mean I'm pretty good at hide & seek you know!
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
I predict somebody working at some Nestle warehouse to pass all the boxes through a metal detector.
Anyone else remember the Coca Cola MagiCan competition from 1990? They had a big problem with the mechanisms jamming, and then there was that rumor the someone died from drinking the contents of one. PR disaster.
I'm waiting for the first report of Nestlé tracking down some poor dead kid's stomach to award it £10,000.
When a winning consumer opens the wrapper, it activates and notifies the prize team who promises to track them down within 24 hours
Wait, let me explain to you what it means, because I'm not quite sure you got it:
Only when you open the wrapper does the GPS get activated.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
That's the real purpose of this campaign.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Good luck finding me in the sewers!
On a more serious note, this could cause loads of trouble to an unsuspecting guy if an airport scanner picks it up.
make the chocolate taste terrible.
I'm not entirely up to date with GPS devices, but last time I used one the accuracy really put me off from ever using them seriously. Specifically took part in a demonstration of using GPS devices on RC cars, which was sponsored by a hobby shop. We took them out to a forest and drove them around, with a camera on the car streaming back to the base they set up for us. After an hour when the batteries died we had to use the GPS devices to track down the cars, with first 3 to find the cars allowed to keep them. Long story short the GPS was barely any help, sure it put us in the general area of our cars, but we had to resort to reviewing the last few minutes of footage to narrow down exactly where they were.
Maybe if Nestle took to heart the considerations that demonstration did for it's future work they just might pull it off without randomly asking people if they have the winning bar. Specifically that demonstration moved on to using short range beacons which could be fit into the remote to narrow down the actual location, complete with a status bar like display where 100% was your within 1ft of the car.
The electronic device disguised a chocolate bar will be picked up by the X-Rays, taken outside and blown up by the army. Meanwhile the person carrying it will be locked up without trial (it's the UK, not the free world) for months.
Which wiretapping laws would they be?
"Nestle plans to stalk UK consumers"
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Technically it's an active ingredient in cocoa beans.
In order for it to be good for you, it's necessary to treat the bean differently from the farm to the bar.
You can buy the active ingredient on it's own. And it really is genuinely good for your heart.
http://www.cocoavia.com/
Here's a paper in a peer reviewed journal with some evidence for you:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0098299710000774
Yes competitions like this fail because someone in the distribution process with a warehouse full of bars will have enough intelligence to find the bars and get accomplices to plant them in shops.
"the GPS-enabled bars looked just like normal chocolate bars"
So, broken in 3 or more pieces and melted on one end?
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Given the average accuracy of a GPS device it's going to be a sod to pinpoint the recipient.
Having said that, I'd go and look around dentists in the vicinity - if that bar really looks the same as a chocolate bar the unlucky finder may need the prize to pay for the dental damage :)
Insert
GPS receivers don't transmit anything (note the "receiver" in "GPS receiver", no transmitter). A transmitter has to send that location back to their webserver(s)... What are they using for that - cellular, wifi? Probably SMS.
Most of the chocolate bars I see nowadays come in foil packets. But I don't doubt there would be some way to "distinguish" the winning bar if you happened to have access to an entire box of them and time enough to experiment.
So what happens if they DON'T find you within the 24 hours? TFA didn't mention whether there is a bonus for hiding yourself well (e.g. in a cave or on a car-ferry or airplane) or whether the prize is lost.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
How about a plastic chocolate bar with a phone number engraved: phone here and get ££££!
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
You just need a Non-Linear Junction Detector to find it?
There are wiretapping laws in the UK too. But the consumer has to pull a tab to activate the transmitter, which will presumably be deemed consent.
What I'm not clear about is whether the transmitter is as well as the chocolate or instead of. If the latter, Nestle had better hope the bar isn't bought by a diabetic who needs a quick sugar fix because they feel themselves going hypo.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
And device not taken outdoors. Can't GPS lock through a ceiling.
After reading this, I would prefer to have all of my candy tracked. Except Jujubes. No one likes those.
I first thought of "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" Someone with a lot of money and free time could really mess with Nestle, although I doubt they would really try too hard to track you down....
K Man
Murphys law says this one will end up promoting stool softener , lawsuits and corporate lessons learned.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
>A Nestle spokesman added that 'inside their wrappers, the GPS-enabled bars looked just like normal chocolate bars.'"
Personally, I make a distinction between the chocolate bar and the wrapping, so this seemed to imply to me that the GPS tracker might be INSIDE the actual chocolate bar and not the wrapper. Putting the tracker IN the actual chocolate... now that would be a bit intrusive.
Many people would love to, myself included, but until one of us gets elected to both the presidency and another few hundred of us into congress (or maybe if congress listened to it's constituents over the defense contractors that pay them), the best the common man can do is write to the congressmen, vote for the least appalling candidates, and offer what we can to the troops who are stuck over there.
Probably violates wiretapping laws.
There are two possibilities: a. It doesn't affect you. Most likely. b. They come to your home and offer to hand over £10,000 to you. You have the choice of taking the cash or complaining about violation of wiretapping laws. What will you do?
I love the fact so many people still refer to it as “Tin Foil” despite the fact we've been using aluminum foil, not tin, since the middle of last century. This gives me hope for such phrases as “dialing the phone.”
Michael J.
Root, God, what is difference?
In the TV ad, they say that the bar will (when opened) send a signal to a satellite, the satellite will then send a signal to Nestle who'll dispatch (what look like) militarised special forces people in helicopters and sliding down abseil ropes to hand you a suitcase full of money.
Now I must admit, I do like the odd kit-kat (and also a kwik-krap), but I think I'll be abstaining for a few weeks until some other poor sap gets the "prize".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk2Lfgh1c4Q
And I thought Willy Wonka was creepy...
They have no business being there in the first place.
Who/what shouldn't be there? The soldiers or the candy bars?
The sentence you quote sounds like marketing speak to me. I wouldn't base implementation assumptions on it. It might work that way, or that might be the way that the Media Director decided to describe it.
Might be why he indicated someone should use a metal detector and not a rf analyzer.
I expect people in the UK will start to find that every chocolate bar in the store broken or smashed as people "look" for the winning bars by bending and squeezing them.
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How will I prevent this thing from going off on the plane? Will it look suspicious when going through security?
(Not that there is actually anything wrong with cell phones on air planes, but that is a rant for a different time).
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
I've heard of chocolate adding on pounds before but this is ridiculous *chomps cigar*
-- the opinions stated above aren't those of my employer. in fact, they're probably not even my own. you know what, ju
Ah! You mean that opening the wrapper would transmutate the chocolate bars into metallic circuits implementing a GPS transmitter? Brilliant.
Or Crunchy Frog.
Constable Clitoris ate one of those!
They have a Prize Team? They're taking this tracking you down thing very seriously. I'm imagining a van pulling up on the curb and the A-Team jumping out check in hand.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott#The_baby_milk_issue
This wikipedia article puts it mildy, I'll put it as it s, they're a bunch of fucking scum baby killers who market baby powder to mothers living in places where the water will kill the babys.
I for one am boycotting all nestle products for life, the company should be shut down for a crime of this size.
They even admit it on their own website, they say they've stopped, I don't care either way, but from what other sites say, they haven't stopped.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
In the EU, at least 35% of it is, according to Directive 2000/36/EC.
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"Please ensure your seat backs and tray tables are in the fully upright and locked position. Please ensure that all electronic devices are switched off at this time. Once the captain has indicated that it is okay, certain electronic devices may be used in flight; please check the magazine in the seat back pocket. Some devices may not be used at any time in the flight, these devices include remote control devices, radios, chocolate bars, ..."
One of these assholes saying chocolate is good for your heart. What kind of wishful thinking would lead a sane person to believe in that level of horseshit?
Very often, science trumps logic, and even more often it trumps public perception. This is one of those times. Science has demonstrated (others have posted links to studies) that chocolate, especially unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate, is in fact good for you.
Of course, public perception is that anything that tastes good is bad for you -- and THAT is the rankest horseshit.
Free Martian Whores!
Note to /.newbies: When in doubt always assume tin-foil as material for any garment discussed on /.)
Tin foil pants? Try getting that through airport security.
His post said: "...it must emit some form of electromagnetic radiation..."
But according to the article, that radiation would only start after opening the wrapper.
That a metal detector might work is not disputed by me.
Try to read, Read, READ.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Yes, you are right, but apart from that, I don't see another way of saving the battery from being exhausted long before the bar is bought, other than by activating the device either upon buying or on opening.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
No, he did not!
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
The poster that I commented on, did not say anything about metal, nor was that what I was replying to.
I'm sure you didn't even take the time to read, Read, READ properly!
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Wait, what? Isn't the runner up prize here GPS nodes that only activate when protective wrappers are removed?
A. I wanna see the patent on that!
B. Gives new meaning to Halloween!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Perhaps it could scavenge cell phone radiation to charge a capacitor? After all, it would only need to work sporadically.
(OTOH, while I've read about charging capacitors by scavenging rf radiation, I've no idea how practical it really is, or how much power the GPS requires...particularly as if it's cheap and small enough to embed in a candy bar wrapper, it's not a model I've ever encountered. But it certainly shouldn't be broadcasting continuously)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
What if somebody eats the gps without knowing?
I'd be pissed, nothing's getting between me and my 2pm sugar craving chocolate bar - oh look at the time...
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
trying to get through airport security. I swear, I bought it at the store! I have no idea what this device is! I've never seen it in my life before!