CBS Coming to the Produce Aisle 237
smooth wombat writes "In the continuing struggle to capture viewers, CBS is pairing with SignStorey Inc. to provide short-form programming designed specifically for shoppers on topics such as health, nutrition, as well as short news and sports items and entertainment. This programming will be displayed on video screens in the produce and deli sections of 1,300 supermarkets nationwide.
Virginia Cargill, the CEO of SignStorey, said CBS will provide 1-2 minutes of programming for each video loop that appears on the in-store monitors. Each loop consists of about 8 minutes, half of which is advertising."
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Horrible. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Horrible. (Score:3, Insightful)
I think this might be actionable as the audio equivalent of the chinese water torture. Repetition ad nauseum is a viable torture technique.
Re:Horrible. (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, and as if we need to encourage people to loiter longer in the stores.
They way people drive shopping carts, IMHO, is highly indicative of the way they'd drive if they knew there was no ticket forthcoming.
I once got so fed up with a couple of nattering bints who completely blocked the aisle, I picked up one of the carts, and moved it aside. That shut their traps.
Re:Horrible. (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would anyone flash his lights, since all intelligent people know not to block the passing lane?
Re:Horrible. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Horrible. (Score:2, Troll)
Anyone who hogs the middle lane is automatically less intelligent than the person flashing lights behind them.
Re:Horrible. (Score:2)
Re:Horrible. (Score:2)
Totally! And there's about 15 clowns in each car, with their big red noses? Luckily, they drive little tiny cars that are easy to get around.
Seriously, they usually aren't going 15 under the limit, they are usually doing exactly the speed limit. Yes, it's a pisser, but actually, they are driving legally and safely, believe it or not. You really need a chill
Re:Horrible. (Score:2)
Re:Horrible. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Great. Now it gets worse. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Great. Now it gets worse. (Score:2)
This is proof that TV Execs are complete idiots. Or perhaps the people purchasing advertising. Every store I walk into that has telescreens I observe most if not all people doing something to avert their attention away from the screen. It's a colossal waste of money and I don't see how it is of any benefit to the advertisers.
What is wrong with ALL YOU PEOPLE??? (Score:2)
We brought this upon ourselves.
Where were the people who complained when movie theaters started showing commercials before a movie starts? Where are the people who complained when theaters expanded these commercials to over 20 minutes before a movie starts? Did anyone stop going to the thea
Re:What is wrong with ALL YOU PEOPLE??? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What is wrong with ALL YOU PEOPLE??? (Score:3, Funny)
I think it's safe to say I'd buy just about anything after watching Jessica Simpson eat it. That woman can make the muppets sexy, fer cryin' out loud!
Infinitely worse (Score:2)
If this shows up at HEB, I'm going elsewhere.
ads ads everywhere (Score:2)
And I will make it a point to shop at the stores that don't bombard me with extra advertising as I walk down an aisle.
Re:ads ads everywhere (Score:2)
Ironically (Score:2)
Anyway, this sort of thing (the big ads everywhere) won't be happening at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods I'd wager. . . which is where my girlfriend shops anyway.
I don't shop, that's wimmins work. *ducks* I keed, I keed. But I do make her shop or promise not to complain about stuff I bought at Jewel. Her choice.
hence the produce aisle (Score:2)
That is unacceptable to these advertising bastards, so they want to put a frickin TV there.
Oh well, they're trying to put TVs on buses and trains here in Denver, and I've seen such in other cities already. The whole advantage to taking transit is I can read instead of marvel at other people's dr
Re:hence the produce aisle (Score:2)
I disagree. By that logic, keeping the floor mopped is an ad. Does a tree advertise by dropping dead leaves?
Semantics. I guess I'm bothered by blatant, explicit advertising. I'm not bothered that my grapefruit has been waxed. If my grapefruit asks if I've considered the new Ram TopHeavy 550 I'm going to get upset.
Re:ads ads everywhere (Score:3, Insightful)
i didnt realize google had ads in gmail until someone mentioned it here. every slashdot story has an add when you go to read comments. i have no clue what they are selling. when a webiste asked me to look at an ad before reading a story, i go to another site. i glazed over the parts of articles that are ads becuase the format changes. i could go on..
Re:ads ads everywhere (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:ads ads everywhere (Score:2)
Turn on your radio and wait for a commercial. Then call these fine folks at (203)255-7840, hold your phone up to the radio, and let them appreciate some of the "helpful messages" that pollute our world. Repeat, say, 20 times a day.
The Big Eye (Score:2)
.
.
.
Hey! They're scoring coconuts now so they're easier to break open!
See BS (Score:2)
>
> Hey! They're scoring coconuts now so they're easier to break open!
Because if a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun, and those coconuts are gonna get scored like a butterfly ballot made of beef jerky and left to cure an alligator-infested Florida swamp.
Seriously, Dan [about.com], we never knew you had a Slashdot account! How's the turnip soup [wcco.com]? I love biscuits with gravy.
So what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Les Moonves is a moron. (Score:2)
Seriously, who cares? Nobody really watches those screens anyway.
Or watches them specifically to buy from their competitors? (The more annoying the commercial, the more likely I am to buy another product. I don't have a Dyson or an Oreck vacuum cleaner: I have a Hoover. And thanks, I'm not a hausfrau who is sufficiently ignorant of the laws of physics to believe in bagless vacuums not blowing fine clouds everywhere, nor do I wish to have a vacuum cleaner which is so much flimsy crap that it only weighs 8l
It's already at the gas station (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's already at the gas station (Score:2)
I love how so much advertising is now having negative effects. The only time I don't mind it is during the superbowl (which I wouldn't watch otherwise), but even those commercials are barely worth watching anymore. Unfortunately instead of
Car Wash Button Options (Score:2)
Apparently some stations are now doing something so you have to decline a car wash before you can start the gas pumping after swiping your card too. To my understanding, my dad was waiting for about three minutes before figuring this out, and was *not* happy about it.
Yeah, it's a little intrusive. Just a bit...
Someone should hack those things to change the options, maybe a randomized thing based on some function of the date and the last digit of the card number, in order to make it seem like an urban leg
Re:Car Wash Button Options (Score:2)
Re:It's already at the gas station (Score:2)
I had the same experience at a Shell station. I had already begun pumping before I noticed, but I pushed the "turn this crap off" button, thought for a second, then quit pumping and went to the station across the street.
Re:It's already at the gas station (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's already at the gas station (Score:2)
Yes. I don't recall the exact details, but there was definitely a button. The screen also wasn't so large. Yours sound much worse. Hopefully more people start avoiding such stations. I started going to a station that has free air (for tires). It took me weeks to find such a station (new to the area). I truly don't care if the gas is slightly more expensive to subsidize the air pump (and it does not appear to be any more expensive); the convenience of not needing quarters is worth it.
Ok (Score:5, Insightful)
The last thing people want to see is some blow-dried "my voice is smiling" asshole reading a 30-second factoid from a teleprompter while people try to find a box of breakfast cereal that doesn't annihilate a $10 bill.
Unplug the fucking televisions. At least give people the dignity of being ripped off in peace.
Re:Ok (Score:2)
LS
Get over it. (Score:3, Informative)
You know that's not true. The issue of Club Cards has been hashed over and over here, but the bottom line is that most do not require any personal identifiers. That the stores give shoppers value in return allowing them to better understand purchase trends is not scandalous in the least except to the tinfoil hat crowd. Get over it.
Re:Get over it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ok (Score:2)
This may come as a shock to you, but if product revenue doesn't see a significant hit from this annoyance, and if profits from this additional advertising more than make up for any dip in product sales, then management won't give a shit.
If you see these in stores, complain to management, tell them you will be switching to another market to do your shopping and that you will be advising everybody you know to do the s
Re:Ok (Score:2)
Fine, then we'll get the legislature to outlaw it. Then management will give a shit.
Re:Ok (Score:2)
For now.
Third, are you familiar with the concept of the "courtesy card"?
No. What I'm familiar with is that people are being ripped off by grocery stores. It's wrong and it needs to stop. Today.
Re:Ok (Score:2)
Doesn't say one fucking thing about club cards. Thanks for playing.
The only one getting ripped off is you.
Pure fragrant bullshit.
If you're not using the card THAT THEY WILL GIVE TO YOU
I don't want the FUCKING CARD! I want a fair price on my FUCKING FOO
Re:Ok (Score:2)
I have fake cards at every store I shop at. I don't care if I lose them or give them away, since I can get a new one every time. Hopefully they lose a bit of money every time I get a new card, they never get any "real" info out of me, and their database of customer habits is filling up with "Sham Fraud 123 Fake st Springfield ST 12345"
Feel free to use this information when you get a card, with my compliments.
Also there are people like this [cockeyed.com] who encourage you to
Re:Ok (Score:2)
Which leads to this question which nobody seems to have an answer for: why do they need the card in the first place?
The answer is simple. So they can charge $4.95 for a product that used to be $2.49.
It's a flagrant way to price gouge x% of their customers. Simple as that.
Philip K, is that you? (Score:2)
Still waiting for the "basic pleasure model"
Advertising continues to evolve (Score:4, Insightful)
I actually like this form of advertising IF it gives me some interesting information. If it is the same 4 minute segment run over months, I'll ignore it and it will likely fail. If they give me something interesting to do with produce, I can actually see it working.
"Buying onions? Try them with Hamburger Helper for a delicious meal for the family!" isn't going to get me to buy packaged junk. But if they combine it with an interesting recipe (or fact) about the onion, I may just stick around to watch it.
For those anti-advertising in general, remember that much of the old media that you might have loved (think: Firefly, Futurama, etc) may have died because advertisers wouldn't pay for it -- and we never had the chance to ourselves. Don't knock advertising until you understand how forcing millions to pay a nickel more for a product might be better than asking a few tens of thousands of media users to pay $5 each.
Then again, the iTunes format may destroy TV and radio anyway. I guess CBS is seeing the forest for the trees.
Re:Advertising continues to evolve (Score:2)
I'm halfway looking forward to this "educational nutrition programming."
Re:Advertising continues to evolve (Score:2)
tanstaafl. The money that pays for your "lower costs" comes from advertisers who get you to buy stuff you didn't really want - and can make you think it was your idea and that you're getting a bargain.
Good! (Score:5, Interesting)
Just like I'm all for those stupid "club cards". I used to hate them, until I realized that the suckers who didn't use them were subsidizing me, along with the free advertising and coupons. It's well worth it to me for them to know how many tampons my wife buys in exchange for lower prices. Same theory.
Re:Good! (Score:2)
Actually, this isn't quite true -- supermarkets have very thin margins on certain items, but they have many items with very good margins. I've consulted in the past on some POS systems for smaller supermarkets and was always very surprised at the gross margins of the average sale.
For the discount card, I use the phone number of a friend of mine at check-out. It's always funny when the clerk says "Thank you Mr. Martin" even though my last name is Dada
College = teh roxor (Score:2)
And kids, NEVER i mean NEVER fill out a credit card application from a credit card company that shows up on campus. I don't care if the T-shirt is free. I was smart enough never to do it but
Re:Good! (Score:2)
Re:Good! (Score:2)
Just like the way theater ads have lowered movie ticket prices? Oh yah, they haven't.
Re:Good! (Score:2)
If only because it's the supplier's whose throats are being cut. They get kicked around like you'd never believe in the name of low prices, and I personally try and avoid that by shopping at places with a more rigorous code of conduct.
rip people off? (Score:2)
Or you don't and fail to take advantage of the specials.
Or you do what I do, and tell them "I forgot my card" every time and punch in a fake phone number, thereby taking advantage of the savings without opting in. Hooray!
so a coupon in the paper (Score:2)
Re:so a coupon in the paper (Score:2)
a) Changing the subject
b) Coupons don't require people to hand over their credit report
c) Coupons apply to one product
d) Coupons are usually provided by manufacturers
So no, coupons are not a ripoff. Yet.
Re:rip people off? (Score:2)
So why have the cards in the first place? Oh, so they can rip people off.
Re:Good! (Score:2)
"Ripping people off" implies the store is doing something underhanded, which is not true. Your choices are laid out right in front of you. Here's one price. Here's another price you can have if you use the club card. Your choice.
That's like saying a store "rips certain people off" if they charge a lower price if you buy two of something.
Re:Good! (Score:2)
No one is "forcing" you to do jack. They're paying you for your information. If you don't want to sell them your information, then don't.
Yeah. Give us your address and phone number or we'll plug an industrial vaccuum into your wallet. Bullshit. Ripoff. Cheat.
You act like you have no choice but to shop there. You don't like it, sh
Re:Good! (Score:2)
Horseshit. Charge an unreasonable, confiscatory, punitive price, you force people to accept the conditions of getting the lower price. What do you want? A fucking map?
They're paying you for your information. If you don't want to sell them your information, then don't.
And pay a 75% penalty on your FOOD. Thanks for shopping at Ripoff's.
Why get so up in arms about it?
Because it's wrong. I don't like it when people get ripped off.
It's a simple business decision.
Sure would
Re:Good! (Score:2)
Let's see: you walk up to a product display, and the price tag says "$2.98 or 2/$4 with a Club Card". You pick up the item and put it in your cart. When you get to the checkout, you are asked for your club card. You say "No got". They ask if you want one, you make the decision to say "No thanks".
Tell me again how this is "ripping" someone off. You choose not to participate in the "club", you choose to pay the higher price. Or go somewhe
Re:Good! (Score:2)
They are charging exorbitant penalties to people who don't want to hand over information to a grocery store that is none of their fucking business. They are charging those penalties on FOOD.
They want to charge confiscatory prices for food. Club cards are the way they do it.
You choose not to participate in the "club"
That's my perogative. People should not be penalized for saying "no thanks." Especially on FOOD.
Or go somewhere else.
Almost every major groce
Re:Hey Einstein (Score:2)
It is when the correct price is the club card price.
Living in the future (Score:2)
Who cares if we aren't flying to work in our personal hover cars/jet packs, haven't cured the common cold, haven't eradicated hunger, or, heck, solved any of life's huge questions, when we have all the advertising promised us in films such as Blade Runner and Minority Report?
Seriously, though, I'm so fscking sick of seeing all those video screens running ads in the grocery store every week. Food Network at the checkout counter, adapalooza b
Advice for CBS (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Advice for CBS (Score:2)
You're forgetting CSI--an uber hit in its timeslot.
I don't own a TV, but everyone's always telling me how when they murder me, they're going to get away with it because they watch that show... It's obviously very popular.
Re:Advice for CBS (Score:4, Interesting)
http://tv.yahoo.com/nielsen/ [yahoo.com]
Re:Advice for CBS (Score:2)
Only half? (Score:2)
Uh...if they do it right, the whole thing will be advertising. 8 minutes might be traditional 30-second spots, but the rest of the content will be either infomercial (Today-show-ish) or pure product placement.
Another good reason (Score:2)
Our Local Walmart... (Score:5, Funny)
They show the "Walmart Network" on a recurring loop.
I just wish I could order that channel on Dish Network or DirecTV.
It could have valuable and informative programming on it that will stir my imagination, enrich my mind and possibly motivate me to buy something that I don't know (yet) that I need.
later, gotta go punch the monkey and win.
VegTV (Score:2)
We're already close with radio networks and organic displays. What about tapping the energy in the produce itself to drive displays before it all wilts?
why couldn't they do the reverse? (Score:3, Funny)
"oh look! CSI! and a burrito!"
even though you may not understand what i'm talking about, i rest assured that homer simpson knows exactly what i mean
I *Hate* Advertising (Score:2)
TV-B-Gone (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:TV-B-Gone (Score:2)
Dammit! (Score:2)
not just half (Score:4, Insightful)
No, all of it will be advertising.
Consider a magazine with exactly one advertiser, entirely supported by that advertiser's dollars. These do exist. The "articles" are little different from the ads. The material identified as ads is at least presented honestly as persuasion, not information. The material identifed as articles is misrepresented as information when in fact it is persuasion.
Take a look at the helpful health video running in the waiting room at your eye doctor, dentist, etc. Same deal. They're not blurring the line, they're obliterating the line between advertising and information.
It will be no different in the supermarket. What advertising insiders call "short form programming" you will call ads. If the entire video was identified as ads, it would at least be presented as what it is. But it won't be; half of it will be passed off as "information".
The result will be not just intrusive and annoying, it will be dishonest and misleading.
Re:not just half (Score:2)
Hear, hear! I read the journal of the AMA, and they're ALWAYS talking about how people should go see "doctors." Scandalous.
Traffic (Score:2)
The grocery stores in my area are packed enough as it is without people gawking at television screens and clogging up the aisles.
Already seen this (Score:2)
I don't know that I pay any attention to them when I shop - maybe other people do, but they don't do much for me other than make me very, very glad that I don't work at a supermarket.
No no no! (Score:2)
And by the way, this isn't the TV aisle, can you move so I can get some onions?
more damned electronic noise (Score:2)
i have to agree with the person looking for some measurment to weed out advertising types at birth. maybe send them to school as taxidermists or something.
advertising is the bane of our age but many take it for granted, like a person who never realizes that not all people eat macaroni and cheese prepared from a box for every meal. there is more to life t
It's already out there. (Score:2)
Its easy for me to ignore since I usually shop with headphones plugged into my ears. Makes for a less stressful experience.
But I can imagine that just like Muzak, this will get on your nerves if you see it more than once a day. Sort of like those little interesting billboards they put in some laundromats. They only start to suck when the same one has been
Disgusting (Score:2)
What about advertisement screens in the toilet stall so that you are subjected to ads while taking a crap? "Having a problem! Try Brand-X Laxative!".
Clockwork Orange
Ubiquitous advertising (Score:2)
I don't mind ads that are billboards or signs, and I can generally put up with the ads they're inserting in Musak these
Finally... (Score:2)
I've been threatening to take one of these to my local sports bar (2 dozen TVs, at least) and watch the hilarity ensue. Too bad they got the best wings in town and I don't want to get keel-hauled by the "regulars".
Turn off the TVs in the supermarket? Hell yeah.
~D
Make's me want to do violence. (Score:2)
Now we need a heads-up-display with adblockers (Score:2)
I don't view ads on my computer. I don't watch commercials on TV. I throw away all junk mail at my mailbox. All my numbers are on the do-not-call list. I don't subscribe to any magazines or newspapers.
When computers get good enough to do real-tim
Well, they gotta do something (Score:2)
They need the revenue stream.
Advertising all around (Score:2)
Re:Nice LCD you have there..... (Score:2)
A few dozen employees going postal after listening to that repetitive crap should put the damper on things.
Re:disgusting (Score:2)
Say ... now there's an ad campaign...
Re:In other news... Microsoft employees revolting! (Score:3, Funny)
They certainly are! *rimshot*
Yeah, but look where you are (Score:2)
Re:not a slashdot worthy topic (Score:2)
i'm sorry, but i can't see where this is any kind of interesting comment on the tech world...
is it really "news for nerds"..."stuff that matters"?