There’s a scene in the 2002 movie “Minority Report” in which Tom Cruise walks by a billboard, and it shouts at him, “John Anderton! You could use a Guinness right about now!” It’s the ultimate in personalized advertising. But that could only happen in a Steven Spielberg science-fiction movie, right?
It’s not as implausible as you might think. Popular Science reported in 2010 on IBM’s work developing digital billboards that display individualized ads. They pick up data from radio-frequency identification chips embedded in your credit cards or cell phone to retrieve details about you and your spending habits and serve up an advertisement just for you. Is it so odd to think that it could plug your name into that? Or measure changes in your body chemistry to figure out that you’re slightly dehydrated and could use something cold and refreshing right about now?
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