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Tostitos' Breathalyzer Bags Can Detect If You're Drunk -- Then Call Uber

Posted by EditorDavid on from the eat-responsibly dept.

Slashdot reader schwit1 writes that Tostito's corn chips "has developed a special bag, available for a limited time, that can detect if you've had too much to drink." Its all-black packaging measures your breath for traces of alcohol, and if the test reveals you're sober, a green circle appears on the bag. But, Mashable reports... If it decides you've been drinking -- regardless of how much -- an image of a red steering wheel appears on the otherwise stark black bag along with a reminder not to drive and a code for a $10 Uber discount (valid only on Super Bowl Sunday). And if you've had so much to drink that the mere act of hailing an Uber becomes a difficult chore, the bag will even do that for you. The package is equipped with near-field communication technology that will automatically order a ride when tapped with a smartphone.

36 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Correct link by stevel · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://mashable.com/2017/01/25...

    1. Re:Correct link by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      And 16 hours later the editors still haven't bothered to fix the link.

      In any other line of work resubmitting old articles as new, submitting error-filled work that you obviously never proofread, not fixing mistakes and committing all the other errors that /. editors make would get you fired within the first few days. Fortunately for the editors here, the standards for online publishing are so low that they would literally have to be illiterate toddlers to not be qualified for their positions.

  2. they also have a weed test by lucm · · Score: 1

    craving Tostitos is by itself an indicator that you've been smoking enough weed and should stay away from 7-11.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  3. If your are blowing into a tostitos bag.... by WarJolt · · Score: 4, Funny

    You are drunk

  4. Headline is misleading. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This story was also posted on The Consumerist: Tostitos ‘Party Safe’ Bags Will Detect If You’ve Been Drinking; Help You Call Uber

    It doesn't 'tell you you are drunk', it merely detects the presence of alcohol on your breath. You'd need an actual breathalyzer to determine if you're above the legal limit or not.

    1. Re:Headline is misleading. by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's pretty brilliant marketing by Tostitos. They've decided to NOT advertise during the Super Bowl (TM), but instead came up with this gimmick. Hell, by the time the Big Game is actually on-the-air, you've already bought the Tottitos (or whatever). So they've come up with this drinking game/Uber tie-in instead.

    2. Re:Headline is misleading. by markdavis · · Score: 2

      >"It doesn't 'tell you you are drunk', it merely detects the presence of alcohol on your breath. You'd need an actual breathalyzer to determine if you're above the legal limit or not."

      Yep. And the "legal limit" really isn't a good marker of how much someone is impaired either, because it can vary greatly from person to person. If one tested reaction time and/or other RESULTS/OUTCOMES oriented factors, it would be far better (and it would account for all chemical and fatigue impairments, not just alcohol).

    3. Re:Headline is misleading. by hambone142 · · Score: 2

      Why would I need a test to tell me I was drinking. Wouldn't I already know that?

    4. Re:Headline is misleading. by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >"The "legal limit" is a good marker of whether or not you'll be charged with drunk driving."

      That is very true. But the better goal would be to have meaningful and fair methods to prevent driving by the actually incapacitated, not just those who have an arbitrary amount of one substance in their body at that moment.

    5. Re:Headline is misleading. by mspohr · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately, for some people, this is a problem.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    6. Re:Headline is misleading. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If someone is actually incapacitated, I don't think we need to worry about them driving.

      The problem is dealing with people that are impaired. To me, a "meaningful" and "fair" method is simply: Don't drink and drive.

      It's meaningful because it works. It's fair because it applies to everyone equally.

    7. Re:Headline is misleading. by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Except that this whole thread is talking about other kinds of impairment which a breathalyzer cannot detect, such as being too tired to drive.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  5. Don't give tostitos to hamsters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I for one welcome our new Tostitos-eating cannibal hamster overlords.

    1. Re:Don't give tostitos to hamsters by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      I for one welcome our new Tostitos-eating cannibal hamster overlords.

      Welcome them with Bud on ice, FTW.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    2. Re:Don't give tostitos to hamsters by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      There's a another theory about the disappearing hamsters and it involved Richard Gere and a length of PVC pipe.

      It was a gerbil, not a hamster, and a cardboard paper-towel tube, not a PVC pipe. And Richard Gere's supposed connection to the episode has been debunked as a myth.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  6. Re:not needed by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

    Drunkenness could be defeated better by enacting a muslim registry.

    You do know that devout Muslims don't drink, right?

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  7. Doritos by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    I'm not really getting the motivation for Doritos to keep this honest. What will keep it from going to the truth, to 'have half a drink and we make money on an uber for you'.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  8. strange new world of marketing by beckett · · Score: 1

    Basically Tostitos has an interesting viral marketing campaign happening during the superbowl. since Tostitos purchases are likely to peak at televised events like superbowl, a novelty, subvertizeing has been inserted into people's snacks. they're betting people will pick a bag up for snacks and not immediately throw it into the trash, but keep it around the house until at least a few beers are consumed. I think that's a deviously clever way of keeping even the bag branding intact in someone's house during the big game. during and aftewards we'll get superbowl related social media photos etc. with how drunk people made their bags.

    lots of comments are already devoted to making fun with how useless it is, or how drunk you have to be before you blow into a bag. However, when things don't make sense sense, they usually make marketing sense, and i think Tostitos has thoughtfully put together a marketing campaign that would reach more people than paying for some overpriced superbowl ad.

  9. Re:ad? by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

    So this is really just a big old ad by Uber right? Various news agencies has fallen for it completely and spread it for free.

    From TFA, mis-linked in TFS:

    The Frito-Lay-owned brand partnered with Uber and Mothers Against Drunk Driving to pull off the stunt, which was orchestrated by San Francisco ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

    So, promotions all round, not just for Uber.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  10. They have that covered by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    When you open any Tostitos bag now, an included audio chip automatically plays five minutes of disclaimers and lack of indemnity as the user consumes chips. Also each chip has the words "I AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS" printed in delicious blue-corn ink on the surface of each chip.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  11. and how much of puke fee does the driver get? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    and how much of puke fee does the driver get?

    1. Re:and how much of puke fee does the driver get? by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Funny

      Couldn't you just bring the Tostitos bag with you?

  12. Re:Can it detect DWH* or DWM* violations? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Given the history of schwit1's postings here, I'm surprised it didn't say something like that in TFS.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  13. What about a taxi? by allo · · Score: 1

    When you're drunk, you're too drunk to judge a random driver. So better call a taxi.

  14. well, if you need this by no-body · · Score: 1

    - don't know how much you drunk
    - need a nanny
    you have a bigger problem than another gadget can fix

  15. Re:A Bad Idea, on the Whole. by hey! · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I'd like to have been a fly on the wall when they ran this past their lawyers. If they did run it past them, because I can't imagine a lawyer who would turn apoplectic at a client doing something with so much risk.

    All it'd take is one false negative -- or even a credible-ish sounding report of a false negative -- and they could be on the hook for a lifetime of nursing home bills.

    As the Lawrence KS police department tweeted: If you have to blow into a Tostitos bag to know if you're intoxicated, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT DRIVE.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  16. How Expensive? by e3m4n · · Score: 1

    Just how damn expensive is this bag of Tostito's? IF they didnt raise the price they've got to be taking a loss. Note to self, buy a couple to ebay later.

    1. Re:How Expensive? by Translation+Error · · Score: 1

      Oh, they're definitely taking a loss on this--the $10 Uber credit alone should indicate that. But I expect it's still a lot cheaper and more memorable than an ad that airs during the Super Bowl.

      --
      When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
  17. Yeah? Wel I can Tell if a Doritos Bag is Drunk... by Motard · · Score: 2

    Fuck you,.. you little..fucking... snack bag thing.

    You think you're so hot? I don't need you. I don't need you at all.

    Hmmm...just a little bit of your savory contents...ummmm.

      Who are you to judge me? Why don't you contemplate your own short, judgemental existence. At least I'm not going to wind up in a garbage bin...

    Not if I can just navigate my legs around that one there....

    (...crash, bang...)

    fuck. don't look at me like that,

  18. But my Corn Chip bag said I was fine to drive! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I swear officer!

  19. Uh-Oh! by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

    Now Tostitos will get boycotted by the organized anti-Trump protest groups because they hate Uber for supplying rides to travelers at JFK when taxi unions called for a boycott at JFK over the two Iraqis detained because of Trumps EO regarding people coming into the US from certain majority-Muslim nations & regions.

    That's going to leave a lot of pasty nerd/geek basement-dwellers heavily conflicted!

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  20. Re:Just what we needed by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

    ... I hope Slashdot editors are the first ones to go extinct.

    OMG!!! You have just opened an ugly can of worms!
    Who will be the user to get
    The Last First Post!

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  21. Brilliant by argStyopa · · Score: 1

    The link in the slashdot story leads to...https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/01/29/1942208/mashable.com/2017/01/25/tostitos-breathalyzer-bag-super-bowl/...the slashdot story itself.

    Brilliant recursive clickthrough ad-revenue perpetual motion?
    Or, perhaps the poster was drunk?

    --
    -Styopa
  22. I hope they remembered by pjbgravely · · Score: 1

    I hope they didn't sell any of these in most on NY state. They might have a lawsuit on their hands.

    --
    Star Trek, there maybe hope.
  23. Re: do they even have lawyers? by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

    If they're so drunk they blow into a Cheetos bag instead of a Tostitos bag, they would of probably driven anyway.

    An alcoholic acquaintance, OK, honestly now, no alt facts, my Brothers favorite line is "Don't drink and drive, you might hit a bump and spill your drink. Alcohol abuse!"

    And yeah, he would blow into the Cheetos bag....

    --
    Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
  24. Easier way to tell if I'm drunk by JohnFen · · Score: 1

    The easier way to tell if I'm drunk: I'm eating Tostitos at all.