Special Interest Group on CRAP

A recent posting by Bruce Schneier about some beautiful Japanese manhole covers reminded me of something that occurred a few weeks ago. While taking a walk around the Google complex I noticed an unusual manhole cover. As my colleague and I continued walking I realized that this offers an entirely new form of advertising opportunity, where advertising could be embedded into manhole covers. We could even make it so that when someone stepped on the surrounding surface, it would register as a “click”, resulting in a payment by the advertiser.

Now you’re probably thinking that this is the stupidest idea you have ever heard of. In reality I’d be surprised if someone had not already done this. There are definitely limits of how far we should be willing to tolerate advertising, and lots of people complain about the pervasiveness of advertising around the world. In recent months the authorities who run the Golden Gate Bridge were pondering whether to put advertising on the bridge. I think that goes way over the line of what is reasonable, but when society keeps insisting on lower taxes, our public facilities will eventually be starved to the point where they look for advertising as a business model.

I just have to admire a society that will have such beautiful manhole covers without being obnoxious about it.