Half in the bag? Hack into this bag.

January 26, 2017 3:40 PM

[T]he Tostitos Party Bag is outfitted with sensors to detect alcohol on a person’s breath. If you’re in the clear, the bag turns green and you’re free to go about your night. If alcohol is detected, the bag turns red with the message, “Don’t drink and drive,” and offers a $10 Uber credit for a discounted ride home. It’s even got near-field communication technology that lets you tap your phone to the bag to hail the ride, if you’re that blasted.

"Let’s be clear: this bag is not a breathalyzer. It does not tell you what your estimated blood alcohol content levels are or know how much you’ve had to drink, and only detects whether any trace of alcohol exists at all."

posted by Atom Eyes (35 comments total)

So all this bag can tell me is whether I've had anything to drink or not? If I can't remember whether I've had a drink, I probably have had so many drinks I won't be able to properly operate a Tostitos bag.
posted by ejs at 4:07 PM on January 26, 2017 [40 favorites]

So, use mouthwash for $10 off Uber? Sweet.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 4:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [47 favorites]

It took me a moment to realize the image on the right was supposed to be a steering wheel and not a pair of panties.
posted by FallowKing at 4:14 PM on January 26, 2017 [23 favorites]

DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE WHILE WEARING PANTIES.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:20 PM on January 26, 2017 [27 favorites]

There should be a note at the bottom of the bag that says "you just breathed into a Tostitos bag to see if you're safe to drive. Call a fucking cab.."
posted by bondcliff at 4:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [111 favorites]

So, use mouthwash for $10 off Uber? Sweet.

But the bag of Tostitos is $11.98.
posted by Splunge at 4:25 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I kind of felt the image was saying "You are not wearing underwear. Go home. AND YOU ARE PROBABLY DRUNK."
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:26 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

So, use mouthwash for $10 off Uber? Sweet.

But the bag of Tostitos is $11.98.

That's bad.

But the Tostitos include your choice of flavoring!
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:28 PM on January 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

I rarely have occasion to say this, but a couple of police departments sum up my feelings on the subject nicely.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 4:29 PM on January 26, 2017 [39 favorites]

I've been breathing into this Doritos bag for five minutes now and it's not working. Does that mean I'm dead?
posted by sfenders at 4:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

We've actually had a chip bag that tests for alcohol for a while in my house. The test works like this: If my wife opens the chips, then microwaves provolone cheese on them, and declares her "nachos" "surprisingly alright," she is too drunk to drive.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 4:37 PM on January 26, 2017 [107 favorites]

The flavoring is also cursed.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:49 PM on January 26, 2017 [19 favorites]

From Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish Twitter link: "If you vomit into the bag, that also contraindicates your fitness to drive."

But I do that every time I eat Tostitos, sober or not...
posted by mosk at 4:59 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

But the bag of Tostitos is $11.98.

Let's be real, I was going to eat those anyway.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 5:15 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Well you probably shouldn't drive while high, either.
posted by RobotHero at 6:05 PM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Is the bag's evidence admissible in a court of law? I was promised jetpacks instead I end up with a future in which I'm constantly being ratted out to the authorities by trash.
posted by um at 6:27 PM on January 26, 2017 [32 favorites]

Frito-Lay sells over 40 varieties of chips and bagged snacks under it's brand. I wonder why Tostitos specifically?

Perhaps the bag is reactive to flavorings so Sour Cream And Onion Lays and Cool Ranch Doritos are out, but Rold Gold pretzels and plain Fritos would be a go.
posted by sourwookie at 7:15 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I wonder why Tostitos specifically?

My hunch is that they move a lot of Tostitos right before the Super Bowl. This gimmick will most likely earn its value back in free publicity right before everyone starts making their Buffalo chicken dip.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

This is not the direction I would have predicted new snack technology to take.
posted by shortyJBot at 7:21 PM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I find this creepy as hell.
posted by Beholder at 7:47 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

It also tests to see if you're stoned.

If it's empty, you're stoned.
posted by MrVisible at 8:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [21 favorites]

I want to know how this works. I've played with gas sensors in electronics before and they all require a fair bit of current to warm the sensor and it takes 45 seconds or more to stabilize. This must be some simple chemical reaction in the ink?

I saw a higher rez photo of the bag and I'm pretty sure the grey circle at the top is the gas sensor. And yes, it requires a fair amount of current to warm up. It's likely not ink that's reacting to the sensor input, but a flexible LCD screen based on the brightness in the photo[0]. With off the shelf hardware you can make this for under $100. It's a gimmick from an ad agency for PR, not a real product.

[0] - Although you could use thermochromic paint, but that stuff isn't super friendly to materials like crinkly chip bags.
posted by ryoshu at 8:32 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I wonder why Tostitos specifically?

You need tortilla chips to eat your guacamole and the Super Bowl is the number one day for guacamole consumption in the US. Since the mid-1990's the avocado growers associations have been marketing to the Super Bowl Sunday crowd:

Meanwhile, the nature of the Super Bowl changed, too. Americans did with the big game what we’ve done with seemingly every national event: Turn it from a day centered on a specific purpose to a day of consuming thousands more calories than our stomachs will comfortably fit. Super Bowl Sunday became less about football fanaticism and more about chips and seven-layer dip. In recent years, Americans have consumed 1.23 billion chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday and eaten 15 million pizzas.

The avocado growers wanted in on the snackapalooza. January was a month in which many growers’ crops would ripen, Goodman said, and what better way to push all that fruit through the market than a national day of guacamole-eating?

So it's a Frito-Lay marketing gimmick to ride the avocado's coattails.
posted by peeedro at 10:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Fascinating. I had noticed the huge increase in avocado and guacamole consumption, after being abroad for 18 years. They are also vastly cheaper than they used to be.
posted by Goofyy at 2:09 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Greg_Ace: "DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE WHILE WEARING PANTIES."

YOU AREN'T MY REAL DAD! I HATE YOU!
posted by Samizdata at 2:55 AM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

GenjiandProust: "Yeah, I kind of felt the image was saying "You are not wearing underwear. Go home. AND YOU ARE PROBABLY DRUNK.""

YOU AREN'T MY REAL DAD EITHER!

WHY DOES EVERYONE ON METAFILTER THINK THEY ARE MY REAL DAD?
posted by Samizdata at 2:56 AM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ask your mother.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:37 AM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Buuuurrrrnnnnnn........
posted by oddman at 4:50 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Safer commando driving through technology.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 6:24 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I know this bag container is not a real breathalyzer, but I really wish you could get one without first being convicted of a DUI. Since one of the things alcohol impairs most is your ability to tell how impaired you are, I really wish you could buy one for yourself to know if you need to wait an hour to drive or if it will be 12 and you should ask your friend if you can sleep on their floor.

Unfortunately, part of the reason they are not sold commercially is because frats are known to use them to "race" to see who gets drunkest fastest, and then people die. :|
posted by a fiendish thingy at 6:37 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

a fiendish thingy, I'm not sure where you are, but you can buy a zillion different breathalyzers, at least here in TX...
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:35 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I choose to interpret the red image as "you're too drunk to drive, here's a pair of underwear, perhaps remove this from somebody appropriate and stay over at their place."
posted by iffthen at 8:44 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Breathalyzers *are* sold commercially, and legally questioned to the extent that a smartphone-connected one was pulled from the market after being shown to be nowhere near accurate.

The problem is that the only real uses are to convince someone they should not drive by showing a number higher than the legally allowed maximum, or for novelty. If you're basing your ability to drive safely on your ability to drive legally, you're already on shaky ground.

Really, an ideal home use breathalyzer would just always say NO. So, this Tostitos bag is actually the ideal breathalyzer.
posted by mikeh at 8:53 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Doesn't this create liability issues that a company that makes tortilla chips doesn't want to deal with?
posted by Selena777 at 3:56 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

You can buy sketchy breathalyzers directly from China if you have the urge, but they're not known for accuracy.
posted by BungaDunga at 5:53 PM on January 27, 2017