Advertising on Your GPS Reciever

May 27, 2000 9:54 AM

Advertising on Your GPS Reciever It looks like advertisers are already dreaming up new uses for the higher quality GPS signals.

"You're walking down the block, your phone goes off as you pass every store and tells you that there's a 50-percent-off sale." Someone remind me why it was a good idea to deregulate the GPS?
posted by darainwa (4 comments total)

A very lo-fi version of this exists already, at least here in Chicago. When traveling south on 90/94 through the city, you'll find an Old Navy billboard prompting you to tune to a certain AM station "NOW!"

Of course, it's a repeating Old Navy ad. It's done with a very low-power, basic transmitter located on that billboard. It doesn't last for long, and has no real reach, but it is fairly unique.

I've frankly wondered why something like GPS ads haven't existed before... radio stations could devote a certain portion of a broadcast to "local ads", much like cable companies do. I don't necessarily agree with it, or even like it, but given that GPS is approaching a point of mass consumption... companies need to exploit it.
posted by hijinx at 11:49 AM on May 27, 2000

We need civilization to collapse, and we need it now.
posted by Ezrael at 12:16 PM on May 27, 2000

yeah, that's REAL good. You're stranded in the wilderness, first thing you wanna see is an ad for mcdonald's
posted by starduck at 12:31 PM on May 27, 2000

This won't last long. Small bluetooth transmitters at participating stores will be the norm (you'll have to install the software on your PDA or cell phone first, one presumes, barring stealth installs a la NetZip).
posted by dhartung at 10:56 PM on May 27, 2000