Coke plays hide and seek

[gitreel]

Soda Can Spies
Posted by CodeWarrior on May 19, 2004 at 8:20 AM (printer friendly)

"Summer is just around the corner and as thoughts turn to vacation and recreation, Coca-Cola has a nifty game of "hide-and-seek" it wants to play with soft-drink consumers.

For its latest sweepstakes, the beverage maker has hidden specially-marked soda cans among the ordinary cans of cola in its cardboard-cased "multipacks." But once consumers find the right can, the game turns where the hunter becomes the hunted. In order to deliver the prize, Coca-Cola has to find the winner. And it does so with the can itself.

Each winning can, which has the same heft and weight of an ordinary pop can, is really stuffed with the electronic guts of a cell phone and Global Position System (GPS) tracker. On the outside of the can are a button, microphone, and a tiny speaker.

"What you do is press the big red button and start the game in process," says Brian Troxell, director of engineering and technology at Airo Wireless, the Atlanta-based company that designed the high-tech promotional cans.

The red button activates the phone to call a special hotline where winners learn of their prize, which can range from a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle to vacation packages to home entertainment systems. Then they must agree to being tracked by the GPS and carry the winning can until one of five national "search teams" locates them.

"[Contest officials] will remotely activate the GPS system inside the can and they will have a search team that will deliver the prize right to you, whatever you're doing, where ever you are," says Troxell.

The GPS technology can track winners to within about 50 feet of anywhere in America and the search teams can surprise winners with their prize anytime within a three-week period of getting the call from the can, say Coca-Cola officials.

As an added bonus, consumers and players can monitor the progress of the game by logging on to the contest's Web site (www.unexpectedsummer.com) which will track each winning can as they are discovered and called in to the contest's headquarters."
PLEASE READ FULL ARTICLE AT
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/US/GPS_soda_cans_cybershake_040514.html
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Yeah, get people to think it's FUN to be tracked.

Thanks but no thanks Coca Cola!

[Capmaster]

Sounds like horseshit to me. How is the cell phone/GPS going to work sealed in an aluminum can? It's basically a faraday cage.

[Guest]

Dumb as hell. Why dont they just tape a reality show while there at it. They could have all of the winners live together in a coke bottling plant for a month.

[flaninacupboard]

watching little blips move round the country sounds funny. or, if you win and get a crap prize, agree to be tracked then plant the transeiver on someone - then watch as the national search team grab them!

be more fun if you had to evade the team rather than wait for them to find you. they had a gameshow like that here a few years ago, teams of two people had to do certain tasks but avoid detection (difficult considering their faces were plastered all over the press) from professional trackers. you got prizes for turning them in too, so they couldn't trust anyone!

[housepig]

the more important question, asked on another board, was :

does the gps unit emit any kind of signal that can be traced with consumer level equipment? could you "war drive" through a grocery store with a laptop and find the can?

"war shopping"?

[Guest]

watching little blips move round the country sounds funny. or, if you win and get a crap prize, agree to be tracked then plant the transeiver on someone - then watch as the national search team grab them!

be more fun if you had to evade the team rather than wait for them to find you. they had a gameshow like that here a few years ago, teams of two people had to do certain tasks but avoid detection (difficult considering their faces were plastered all over the press) from professional trackers. you got prizes for turning them in too, so they couldn't trust anyone!

Yeah.Whomever gets caught the last gets the grand prize. Are U sure this is not how it is set up?It would make more sense.

[pacmania_2001]

May sound stupid but it has you people talking. Will also get Coke alot of free press for a relatively small investment.

I would say quite smart indeed.

[flaninacupboard]

special hotline where winners learn of their prize, which can range from a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle to vacation packages to home entertainment systems.

Made me think you get told your prize then just sit about and wait for them to show up.

Capmaster, who said it's in a normal allluuuuminum can? could be plastic.

[Capmaster]

May sound stupid but it has you people talking. Will also get Coke alot of free press for a relatively small investment.

I would say quite smart indeed.

Bingo. Like the quote from the old actor, I think it was ...something like " say anything you want about me, good, bad, just don't stop talking about me".

[Guest]

the more important question, asked on another board, was :

does the gps unit emit any kind of signal that can be traced with consumer level equipment? could you "war drive" through a grocery store with a laptop and find the can?

"war shopping"?

I thinkit said it needed to be activated when found

[The village idiot]

the more important question, asked on another board, was :

does the gps unit emit any kind of signal that can be traced with consumer level equipment? could you "war drive" through a grocery store with a laptop and find the can?

"war shopping"?

I thinkit said it needed to be activated when found

I'm sure you could still find a way to scan each case of soda to find the phone. It has batteries right? and also things like an antenna that will reflect a signal back when you "ping" it. If it is turned on, then the phone will be actively seaking a signal at all times, easy to scan with a scanner from RadioShack that is good for up to 2.4 Ghz. How about a magnetometer to find the speaker and the electronics. The phone will most certainly have a different value than the soda, even if it is inside an aluminum can.