Nestle's GPS Tracking Candy Campaign 172
colinneagle writes "In a cool yet creepy marketing campaign, Nestle plans to stalk UK consumers. The company kicked off a unique promotion called 'We will find you' that involves GPS trackers embedded in chocolate bars. When a winning consumer opens the wrapper, it activates and notifies the prize team who promises to track them down within 24 hours to deliver a check for £10,000. A Nestle spokesman added that 'inside their wrappers, the GPS-enabled bars looked just like normal chocolate bars.'"
oblig (Score:2, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, YOU find chocolate!
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I know a guy who works at Nestle and he told me this is just the government trying out their new tracking devices.
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In Soviet Russia, you better find the chocolate fucking fast, even if it's not there.
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In Soviet Union, Wonka is KGB and Will find you.
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In Soviet Union, Wonka is KGB and Will find you.
Oompah Loompahs are NKVD. Smile comrad, we know where you are with your Chocotate bar!
Not always easy delivering a prize (Score:1)
I won roughly $200 from a lottery, and the guy who was supposed to find me used 14 days to deliver the prize. He sent an email saying that I had won those money and just to register at a site to win the prize. I thought it was an attempt to scam me for money, so I made his job very hard. It didn't help when the company in question changed its name. I wondered what on earth was going on.
Re:Not always easy delivering a prize (Score:5, Funny)
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I won roughly $200 from a lottery, and the guy who was supposed to find me used 14 days to deliver the prize. He sent an email saying that I had won those money and just to register at a site to win the prize. I thought it was an attempt to scam me for money, so I made his job very hard. It didn't help when the company in question changed its name. I wondered what on earth was going on.
AllAboutTheBaby keeps calling my mobile phone and would like my address, birthdate, bank acount, etc, for awarding me a $100 prize. Right!
Meanwhile, I hope those chocolate bars are clearly labeled or you'll see something like this: Man Sues Candy Company Over Poisoning: "Tasted Like Resistors," Says Victim
Metal detector? (Score:4, Funny)
Wonder how long before someone stars running up and down candy store aisles with a metal detector.
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Maybe you could read the article: The bit about "when the winner pulls the tab" is quite informative.
Dumb, indeed.
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I think an RF detector set to GPS frequencies would be a lot faster.
You may want to rethink this. GPS does not involve a the location device transmitting anything. Even on phones the airplane mode doesn't disable GPS. Not to mention how well GPS will work indoors :-)
Simpler than that (Score:2)
I expect people in the UK will start to find that every chocolate bar in the store broken or smashed as people "look" for the winning bars by bending and squeezing them.
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(and I find it hard to believe that it has enough battery life to function for more than one week).
Re:I wonder why... (Score:3, Informative)
When a winning consumer opens the wrapper, it activates and notifies the prize team who promises to track them down within 24 hours
Wait, let me explain to you what it means, because I'm not quite sure you got it:
Only when you open the wrapper does the GPS get activated.
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I'd be pissed, nothing's getting between me and my 2pm sugar craving chocolate bar - oh look at the time...
Re: Only when you open the wrapper (Score:2)
Wait, what? Isn't the runner up prize here GPS nodes that only activate when protective wrappers are removed?
A. I wanna see the patent on that!
B. Gives new meaning to Halloween!
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Perhaps it could scavenge cell phone radiation to charge a capacitor? After all, it would only need to work sporadically.
(OTOH, while I've read about charging capacitors by scavenging rf radiation, I've no idea how practical it really is, or how much power the GPS requires...particularly as if it's cheap and small enough to embed in a candy bar wrapper, it's not a model I've ever encountered. But it certainly shouldn't be broadcasting continuously)
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I doubt it's that big a trick - if I were asked to make the tracker I'd give it something like an RFID tag that draws power from mobile-phone or WiFi band EM radiation, from which it will be shielded so long as the foil is in place. Once opened the RFID would then power up and trip a transistor or SCR that switches on the battery-powered tracker that would then phone home at regular intervals. Until the foil is opened and RFID powered up the battery circuit would be open, preventing both charge loss and t
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I think that a photodiode is much simpler and reliable. ;)
Same idea as yours except it is EM radiation of a much higher frequency
Re:Metal detector? (Score:5, Informative)
Just before this complete trainwreck of fail goes any further:
The article says "when the winner pulls the tab".
ie. you pull a bit of plastic out of the battery contacts.
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"That would be highly ineffective, since chocolate bars are wrapped in tin foil."
Is it really the 1910's in the UK?
I have not seen a tinfoil wrapped candy bar for over 30 years. plastic wrapped with a Metallica plastic? yes!
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"I have not seen a tinfoil wrapped candy bar for over 30 years. plastic wrapped with a Metallica plastic? yes!"
does this wrapper play "Hells Bells" if you hook it to your power mains?? (i think you have an extra L and A in your statement)
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I don't know about UK, but here in continental Europe, the good chocolare usually has tin foil
He was probably being a bit pedantic. Though the good stuff may be wrapped in foil, I doubt the foil is made of tin; aluminum, more than likely. I'm pushing 50 years old, and I don't know that I've ever seen "tin foil".
Or maybe, as you implied, he just buys cheap chocolate. :)
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Unsurprisingly, it's the same in the UK, with one exception -- KitKat (cheap chocolate covered biscuit) is wrapped in foil, as the marketing has always tied in to this. One of the products with the GPS thing is a KitKat, the other as Aero, which is a normal plastic-wrapped cheap chocolate bar.
(Most of the good chocolate here is probably the same brands you can buy.)
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Well, unless you're going to check each bar separately, I don't think that would work. And you'd need a table of specs expected for each kind of bar, as I'm relatively sure that an 8 oz. bar wouldn't be the same as a 6 oz. one, and they might well vary between models as well as between sizes.
(Yes, I know we're talking Britain, so it will be metric sizes, but I don't even have a clue as to what the metric sizes of candy bar are.)
GPS Trackers (Score:3, Interesting)
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Um, you see no privacy implications involved with having to put your chocolate bars in a metal box in order NOT to be tracked?
Sounds to me like you're already part of brainwashed society.
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No, not brainwashed. Just don't care much. They can try to track me if they want to, but embedding a GPS in a chocolate bar is going to be quite ineffective for the reasons that I've mentioned.
If some hypothetical paranoid person REALLY doesn't want to be tracked but REALLY wants a chocolate, then the metal box would be more than adequate to foil the tracking attempts...
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That and you have to pull a tab to activate the tracking system, so it's not tracking you until you choose to let it.
Re:GPS Trackers (Score:4, Funny)
If one was really paranoid one could just carry one's chocolate in a metal box until one gets home, then the GPS will never lock on anyway.
I always carry suspicious items like chocolate bars under my hat.
/.newbies: When in doubt always assume tin-foil as material for any garment discussed on /.)
Note to
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Even worse: your tin-foil skivvies will crimp when your dedicated TSA agent gives your junk its mandatory anti-weapon-smuggling squeeze. Try to work those kinks out while strapped into your three fourths of a cubic meter [wolframalpha.com] of cattle cargo space in Economy.
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I would guess that rather than use a real GPS they used a triangulation system based on cell-phone towers. GPS in urban environments can be quite iffy.
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If you get welfare worth more than 10,000 GBP hinging on the fact that you have no other income, then yes.
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I feel compelled to respond to you, but I have no idea where to start. How about we start with how you get >10,000 GBP in welfare...
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Many families in London get a lot more than 10,000 GBP per year on housing allowance alone.
I just hope that a winning bar (Score:5, Funny)
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That would be awesome! Quick, everyone break out your metal detectors and lets send a bunch of extra-special care packages to the folks on the front lines.
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you're going to shit a little multicolored sphere when you learn that they have an elite fighting force of oompa loompa's and they airdrop those bastards into a village and they go all Robotron on the place.
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elite fighting force of oompa loompas
I'd read any novel that had this phrase included in the synopsis!
Its a con (Score:4, Insightful)
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Golden ticket. (Score:2)
obligatory reference [wikipedia.org] yet. For extra bonus points, let's theorize about what the prize claimant will have to do as part of the claims process.
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You are, Number 6...
I already know the name of the winners. (Score:1)
uh what? (Score:2)
Farady cage? (Score:1)
So, do I get more money if I hide the wrapper in a Faraday cage so that they can't find me?
What happens if I open the bar in the street, and throw the wrapper? Will they track down the garbage?
The article is a bit light on the details...
And yes, this is quite creepy. The article talks about a similar promotion in Brazil. A country with a high crime rate. Turns out people were a bit suspicious of strangers knocking on their doors...
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No, but you'll get a LOT more money if you accidentally eat the GPS tracker.
Baby milk (Score:3, Interesting)
Any chance of a promotion to track down the parents of kids who've died in the third world due to the heavy, illegal promition of powdered milk there?
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Any chance of a promotion to track down the parents of kids who've died in the third world due to the heavy, illegal promition of powdered milk there?
If Nestle didn't do it, somebody else would.
At least Nestle doesn't use lead in their products.
Re:Baby milk (Score:4, Informative)
Boy, are people still banging on about that, 35 years on?
Yes they are. And you know why? It's because Nestle are still doing that, 35 years on.
They die because the water they drink is tainted. It would still be tainted when they stop drinking breast milk.
No, it's not Nestle's fault that toddlers and older children don't have clean water to drink. It certainly *is* their fault that babies are being exposed to additional risk at a vulnerable age for no justifiable reason other than to bulk up their own profits. Particularly as babies of that relatively undeveloped age (who would normally be drinking breast milk) aren't really meant to be able to handle water-borne pathogens to the same extent as older, weaned children.
If you want to help those kids, donate to sanitation efforts.
As a suggestion in its own right, that would be laudible. As an attempt to divert attention and excuse Nestle from responsibility, it's contemptible.
Nestle were the ones that made the lack of clean water an even bigger problem than it needed to be. Improving sanitation and boycotting Nestle are not mutually incompatible, and suggesting that the water supply should be improved as an attempt to let Nestle off the hook- and indeed to bolster their business- is pretty disgusting.
Boycotting Nestle has absolutely no effect whatsoever.
That's open to question. I agree that those greedy fucks wouldn't be doing this "35 years on" if it wasn't making them more money than any boycott was costing them. Whether that means more people should be boycotting them or taking more action is open to question.
People do it because it's an easy hair shirt to wear and requires no real sacrifice.
That as may be, peoples' alleged laziness doesn't make Nestle's actions any more acceptable.
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I'd first worry about the Chinese companies promoting melamine "milk".
I'd worry about them both. It's pretty stupid to suggest that one precludes dealing with the other.
GPS in Coke can already trried (Score:4, Informative)
A way while back there was a very similar attempt by Coke to put a GPS in a coke can, and swoop in and award the winner.
This raised a lot of security concerns, as there are many places where it would be bad for this to go off in, such as inside a military base.
Links:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/03/09/30/189208/track-a-soda-can-with-gps [slashdot.org]
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/04/05/06/136205/gps-cell-phone-in-soda-can-form [slashdot.org]
What if they can't find me?? (Score:2)
I predict (Score:2)
Analog version didn't work so well for Coke... (Score:2)
Anyone else remember the Coca Cola MagiCan [wikipedia.org] competition from 1990? They had a big problem with the mechanisms jamming, and then there was that rumor the someone died from drinking the contents of one. PR disaster.
I'm waiting for the first report of Nestlé tracking down some poor dead kid's stomach to award it £10,000.
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I did say rumor. It wasn't correct, but it certainly was a rumor, and it was a nightmare for Coca Cola PR. Nothing I said was inaccurate.
Illegal? (Score:1)
Probably violates wiretapping laws.
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"Nestle plans to stalk UK consumers"
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There are wiretapping laws in the UK too. But the consumer has to pull a tab to activate the transmitter, which will presumably be deemed consent.
What I'm not clear about is whether the transmitter is as well as the chocolate or instead of. If the latter, Nestle had better hope the bar isn't bought by a diabetic who needs a quick sugar fix because they feel themselves going hypo.
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Probably violates wiretapping laws.
There are two possibilities: a. It doesn't affect you. Most likely. b. They come to your home and offer to hand over £10,000 to you. You have the choice of taking the cash or complaining about violation of wiretapping laws. What will you do?
Get used to be tracked and traced everywhere (Score:1)
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I have diarrhea (Score:2)
Good luck finding me in the sewers!
On a more serious note, this could cause loads of trouble to an unsuspecting guy if an airport scanner picks it up.
I bet those golden trackers... (Score:1)
make the chocolate taste terrible.
Neat idea, but... (Score:1)
I'm not entirely up to date with GPS devices, but last time I used one the accuracy really put me off from ever using them seriously. Specifically took part in a demonstration of using GPS devices on RC cars, which was sponsored by a hobby shop. We took them out to a forest and drove them around, with a camera on the car streaming back to the base they set up for us. After an hour when the batteries died we had to use the GPS devices to track down the cars, with first 3 to find the cars allowed to keep them
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Someone's going to get arrested at an airport. (Score:2, Insightful)
The electronic device disguised a chocolate bar will be picked up by the X-Rays, taken outside and blown up by the army. Meanwhile the person carrying it will be locked up without trial (it's the UK, not the free world) for months.
Sounds easy enough to cheat (Score:1)
If its got a GPS receiver and some sort of transmitter in it, then its going to have metal. Seems like one could easily check an entire box of unopened candy bars for a winner with just a metal-dector.
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Most of the chocolate bars I see nowadays come in foil packets. But I don't doubt there would be some way to "distinguish" the winning bar if you happened to have access to an entire box of them and time enough to experiment.
What you'll get (Score:4, Funny)
"the GPS-enabled bars looked just like normal chocolate bars"
So, broken in 3 or more pieces and melted on one end?
Clever way to avoid paying out the prize? (Score:2)
Given the average accuracy of a GPS device it's going to be a sod to pinpoint the recipient.
Having said that, I'd go and look around dentists in the vicinity - if that bar really looks the same as a chocolate bar the unlucky finder may need the prize to pay for the dental damage :)
Overengineered (Score:2)
So... (Score:2)
Chocolate bar opened indoors? (Score:2)
Why did I instally think of: Where in the world... (Score:2)
wtf (Score:2)
>A Nestle spokesman added that 'inside their wrappers, the GPS-enabled bars looked just like normal chocolate bars.'"
Personally, I make a distinction between the chocolate bar and the wrapping, so this seemed to imply to me that the GPS tracker might be INSIDE the actual chocolate bar and not the wrapper. Putting the tracker IN the actual chocolate... now that would be a bit intrusive.
Tin Foil? (Score:2)
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I love the fact so many people still refer to it as âoeTin Foilâ despite the fact we've been using aluminum foil, not tin, since the middle of last century.
Tin was first replaced by aluminium in 1910, when the first aluminium foil rolling plant, "Dr. Lauber, Neher & Cie." was opened in Emmishofen, Switzerland. Not the middle of the last century, the very beginning.
This gives me hope for such phrases as âoedialing the phone.â
Well, you'd have to come up with a short enough replacement
TV Ad (Score:2)
In the TV ad, they say that the bar will (when opened) send a signal to a satellite, the satellite will then send a signal to Nestle who'll dispatch (what look like) militarised special forces people in helicopters and sliding down abseil ropes to hand you a suitcase full of money.
Now I must admit, I do like the odd kit-kat (and also a kwik-krap), but I think I'll be abstaining for a few weeks until some other poor sap gets the "prize".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk2Lfgh1c4Q [youtube.com]
Creepy (Score:2)
And I thought Willy Wonka was creepy...
Grouch Marx's take: (Score:3)
I've heard of chocolate adding on pounds before but this is ridiculous *chomps cigar*
Worse than Spring Surprise (Score:3)
Or Crunchy Frog.
Constable Clitoris ate one of those!
Prize Team? (Score:2)
They have a Prize Team? They're taking this tracking you down thing very seriously. I'm imagining a van pulling up on the curb and the A-Team jumping out check in hand.
Boycott Nestle Murderers (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott#The_baby_milk_issue [wikipedia.org]
This wikipedia article puts it mildy, I'll put it as it s, they're a bunch of fucking scum baby killers who market baby powder to mothers living in places where the water will kill the babys.
I for one am boycotting all nestle products for life, the company should be shut down for a crime of this size.
They even admit it on their own website, they say they've stopped, I don't care either way, but from what other sites say, they haven't stoppe
Upright and locked position (Score:2)
I'll tell you what this promotion is! (Score:5, Funny)
This post was removed due to Dice content standards violations.
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DOOOOOOD.... Big woosh. It was a joke; Dice didn't censor his comment. He wrote it exactly as it was presented on the page.
He did the same thing yesterday, only under his user name. I countered by responding to his post with a vicious diatribe against Dice which would indeed have been censored if Dice did such a thing here. They don't. Both posts were modded -1 offtopic, as they should have been, but neither was actually removed.
As to "Who gave the owner mod points?", admins and editors here have always had
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Wull....yeah, but dammit, ok you got me.....f**kers, I was only one cup of coffee into my day with tequila still trickling over my frontal lobes.
HEY!, but the thing looked modded funny and F#@King wanted to see what it was. THOU SHALT NOT withold funny from fly.
THOU SHALT NOT make fly part of the funny.
Yeah I've had loads of "special" treatment over the years, including being studied in the name of a better forum. My particular quirks and attributes seem to keep me in better karma over the years.
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What are Anoncow and why we keep getting post from it?
And if they don't find you? (Score:2)
I Swallowed a What? (Score:4, Funny)
Murphys law says this one will end up promoting stool softener , lawsuits and corporate lessons learned.
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Technically it's an active ingredient in cocoa beans.
In order for it to be good for you, it's necessary to treat the bean differently from the farm to the bar.
You can buy the active ingredient on it's own. And it really is genuinely good for your heart.
http://www.cocoavia.com/
Here's a paper in a peer reviewed journal with some evidence for you:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0098299710000774
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One of these assholes saying chocolate is good for your heart. What kind of wishful thinking would lead a sane person to believe in that level of horseshit?
Very often, science trumps logic, and even more often it trumps public perception. This is one of those times. Science has demonstrated (others have posted links to studies) that chocolate, especially unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate, is in fact good for you.
Of course, public perception is that anything that tastes good is bad for you -- and THAT is t
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In the EU, at least 35% of it is, according to Directive 2000/36/EC.