Public restrooms with ads
Osaka-based property management company Hankyu Hanshin Properties is in charge of a number of high-profile buildings in the city, which in turn means that it’s also in charge of their restroom facilities. Recently, the company has noticed increasing rates of congestion, and this month it’ll be trying to speed up the flow of people in and out of its restrooms by installing video screens inside toilet stalls. These screens will be installed in restrooms in Umeda Station and roughly 20 other Hankyu Hanshin Properties facilities in the Umeda neighborhood. The in-stall digital signage will serve a number of purposes, starting with displaying the amount of time the current occupant has been inside the stall. It’ll also show whether or not there are currently any unoccupied stalls in the restroom, which might seem like unnecessary information for someone who’s already secured a spot in which to do their business, but the intended effect of the those two pieces on information is to increase users’ consciousness of how long they’re tying up their stall for, and also of situations where no one else can use the restroom until someone vacates their stall. This, Hankyu Hanshin Properties hopes, will encourage restrooms users to do what they need to do and then exit their stall in a speedy manner.
Between Japan’s aging population and the fact that pretty much everyone’s phone now gives them access to a virtually limitless amount of lingering-inducing leisure content, it’s perhaps not surprising that Hankyu Hanshin Properties says average-usage times for its bathroom stalls has been going up. It’s also a testament, perhaps, to how well maintained and clean their stalls are, as, especially in many other countries, public restrooms are often the sort of places where one would, even without any prodding, want to spend as short a time as possible in. During preliminary testing of the in-stall screens at a smaller number of Umeda facilities that started last summer, Hankyu Hanshin Properties says they achieved a reduction of more than 47 percent in the number of instances of single users occupying a stall for more than 30 minutes.
So far, the digital signage sounds like a good idea to decrease restroom congestion, but there’s an unusual wrinkle to the plan: the in-stall screens will also play ads. While that’s not as conducive to extending stall-stay times as, say, showing entertainment programming would be, it still feels kind of contradictory to include content that, by design, is supposed to be attention-grabbing, and thus distracting, if the goal is to keep people from spending longer than they need in the restroom. Unless they’re planning to only show really annoying commercials. A total of 185 stalls, across 24 properties, are scheduled to have their digital signage in place by March 28, and Hankyu Hanshin Properties says it will take their effectiveness into account in deciding whether to expand the system further.
Too many ads
“After just one use, Derpatine fixed my knee pain and I can run again!”
“Consult a doctor if you’re experiencing any headaches, nausea, muscle pain, blurry vision, nasal congestion, loss of sight, kidney failure, hernia, heart attacks, strokes or knee pain after using Derpatine.”
All those car commercials that say, “Real people, not actors.”
I agree, actors aren’t real people.
I don’t know if those Superbowl commercials work,
but I’m totally gonna eat some Tide and rob a bank.
Political TV commercials prove one thing:
A politician can name all his good points in 30 seconds.
May 22nd Birthdays
1978 – Ginnifer Goodwin, 1970 – Naomi Campbell, 1979 – Maggie Quigley, 1961 – Ann Cusak
1987 – Novak Djokovik, 1907 – Laurence Olivier, 1987 – Julian Edelman, 1966 – José Mesa