HIGH on the list of technology launches we didn鈥檛 mind missing in 2007 was the debut of Kaoru Digital Signage in front of the Kirin City Beer Hall in an underground Tokyo mall. From mid-October until the end of the year, a digital advertising display built by the Japanese phone company NTT entertained passers-by with an image of a glass of beer while an aroma diffuser wafted citrus-scented oils through the air. Lemon and orange smells, according to an NTT press release, are 鈥渁ssociated with beer鈥�, which is presumably why they were chosen to lure people in to buy a pint or two.
NTT says the scent generators can be placed in retail stores, cafes and office lobbies, 鈥渞eflecting the growing trend to use aromas as an active marketing tool鈥�. That鈥檚 as may be, but we can鈥檛 help thinking that this particular effort is somewhat wide of the mark. The only citrus Feedback can recall associated with beer is a slice of lime stuck into a bottle of Mexican lager. Apart from that, our citrus scent associations are with the chemicals added to washing-up liquids, toilet cleaners, plastic garbage bags and cough drops, none of which resembles beer in the slightest.
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Exactly what have Japanese marketing executives been drinking lately? Whatever it is, we鈥檇 rather not have any.
鈥淭HE cooked chicken Mike Barraclough bought from a Somerfield supermarket came with the instructions to 鈥渟hake well before use鈥�. Perhaps the sage and onion stuffing settles in transit, Barraclough suggests鈥�
WE ARE are a little puzzled by the tourism brochure picked up by James Field in the picturesque north Wales village of Portmeirion, and by the website putting out the same information at . Both are headlined 鈥淭en Top Attractions鈥� and are subtitled 鈥淭op places to visit in North Wales鈥�. To underline the concept, both feature an illustration of two hands with the digits outstretched and, yes, there are five digits on each hand making a total of 10 between them. Yet both brochure and website list not 10 but 11 attractions. The website even has a map on it with a red blob for each attraction, and there are quite clearly 11 blobs.
Did nobody notice this in the various stages of the brochure and website鈥檚 preparation? Or did they notice and decide it didn鈥檛 really matter? Or is there some other explanation that hasn鈥檛 occurred to us yet? We鈥檇 love to know.
LIKE most large companies, Jeff Karpinski鈥檚 internet provider Verizon obliges customers to listen to a machine rather than a human being when they phone its helpline. This one offers a number of options, such as assistance with billing or resetting passwords, and Karpinski says that for most of the options the advice given is straightforward and sensible.
Not so, however, when he selected the option 鈥淐an鈥檛 connect to the internet鈥�. The response was a cheerful recorded voice telling him to log on to Verizon鈥檚 website for advice about restoring his connection. Karpinski observes that this is about as useful as telling someone whose car won鈥檛 start to drive to a garage to find out what鈥檚 wrong with it.
WHICH is the easier to move around 鈥� a PC or a mobile phone? When Alex Urquhart was setting up a Packard Bell PC for a relative he was surprised to be told by the manual to 鈥渕ake sure that the computer is kept at least 30 centimetres away from a mobile phone鈥�. Wouldn鈥檛 it be simpler, he thought, first to position the computer and then move any offending phones to a suitable distance?
PALAEONTOLOGISTS, according to that Richard Valentin has alerted us to, started searching for fossils of the great apes鈥檃ncestors long before the great apes came into existence: 鈥淕enetic studies suggest that humans and great apes split from a common ancestor about 8 million years ago, but palaeontologists have struggled to find fossils for the ancestors of modern African great apes for the past 13 million years.鈥�
JUST after passing Perth on the A9, the main road south from the Scottish highlands, there is a sign at the entrance to a farm that reads 鈥淏ag your own manure鈥�. Peter Ferguson suggests that 鈥渨hile this may be excellent advice to those walking in the hills, I do struggle to see its relevance to those speeding past in their cars鈥�.
FINALLY, the leaflet Philip Harper received from the Nationwide Building Society carried a stern warning not to fall for phishing emails. Prominent in the advice it contained on how to recognise such bogus communications was: 鈥渢elltale signs鈥� include spelling mistakes and poor grammar鈥�. Below this, the leaflet went on to stress that it followed security procedures 鈥渢o ensure neither you or us are compromised鈥�. Was the leaflet itself a phishing exercise, he asks.