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Archive for April 10th, 2008

SMS Not Just Bathroom Humor
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
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When you gotta go, you gotta text.

SMS Not Just Bathroom HumorIn order to combat vandalism in public bathrooms, Finland—the mobile-savviest country in the world—is turning to SMS. According to Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest newspaper, the Road Administration there has developed a system in which the bladder-challenged must text the word OPEN to a short code listed on a bathroom stall. This will unlock said stall. The idea is that vandals will be less likely to deface a toilet if authorities have their phone numbers stored in a database and linked to that exact loo.

Hmm, could the same technology be used to regulate “glory holes”? Seriously, though, I think it’s a brilliant idea—and one that could be leveraged by marketers in the future. Since these are public toilets alongside major highways, it’s likely that many bathroom patrons will also be long-distance travelers. To add to government coffers (and perhaps relieve the Finnish citizenry of some of their infamous taxes) the database could be used by paying advertisers to market to hungry, weary road warriors. Here’s how:

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