Google Launches In-Urinal Ads

Personalized peeing advertisements — with scanning to determine what you need — is probably a ways off, but Google being in talks to acquire AdScape Media (via PaidContent) is just one additional piece of evidence that wherever people’s attention and seeking behavior occurs, Google intends to be there to deliver what we need.

The goal is in-game advertising where people are hyper-focused and notice everything while playing. As I said before in this post, my son (the huge gamer), doesn’t mind in-game advertising as long as it doesn’t interfere with game play.

Non-personalized, above urinal advertising already exists and some even come with video screens that play brief ads. I’ve seen newspapers behind plexiglas, paper ads and even ones that rotate. All are geared for the 1-2 minutes most guys invest staring at a wall pretending to be unaware of the guys next to them while acting like they’re handling something pretty monstrously huge.

The picture of the Google ad above the urinal is intended to be humourous, but the levels of their personalization and targeting is only going to accelerate as methods to capture more and more data proliferate. I welcome some of this but there are times — like when I’m spending a little quiet time in the men’s room — that I’d prefer to NOT have sponsored by some company.

How much is too much? What will be the Google equivalent of the pop-under Web browser ad? How good will they be at walking the tightrope between too much and not enough ads?