Japanese vending machine offers free drinks for watching ads

In a marketing case that just sounds too good to be true, vending masters Apex Corp. have purportedly laid out plans that will bring free or subsidized non-alcoholic beverage to thirsty consumers who are willing to watch a 30-second commercial before partaking. Aiming to launch next month in Japan, the MediCafe project will give users the option of plunking down the ¥70 ($0.58) to ¥120 ($1) required to purchase an item, or watching an advertisement for half a minute while the machine dispenses their liquid of choice. It was noted that not all drinks would be free, as some advertisers would only be offering up discounts in exchange for your attention, but this still sounds like a much more legitimate way to receive gratis soft drinks than other alternatives we've seen.

[Via PlasticBamboo]

[anonymouspimp @ May 10th 2007 1:03PM]

Why don't you see if University of Phoenix, Dell, Nutrisystem, AOL Travel, etc. will pop for some free drinks around here?

I have seen their ads on this site enough that I think they probably owe me something at this point. right?

[zoara @ May 11th 2007 10:31AM]

@anonymouspimp...

You still see advertising on the web? And you read a gadget blog? How... incongruous.

I honestly wasn't even aware that Engadget actually carried advertising (except for links to other weblogs sites).

[akijikan @ May 10th 2007 1:15PM]

Oh hell yes, I'd be all over this

[X-Dude @ May 10th 2007 1:30PM]

This is funny, it usually takes me about 30 seconds to fish the change out of my pocket anyways. I might as well save the annoyance and watch the stupid ad!

[kingofwale @ May 10th 2007 1:42PM]

Brilliant, This thing needs to come out in NA right away. :)

[will Arnold @ May 10th 2007 1:47PM]

This would be awsome I would not have to buy drinks anymore! just sit there like once a week and get like 8 or 9 drinks.

[Marshall @ May 10th 2007 2:10PM]

Sounds nice, but when you really need a drink there will be a huge line of people all wanting several free ones, and you'll have to wait. Of course, by the time you get to the front, all the free stuff will be gone and you'll still have to pay for the premium options.

[Octothorpe @ May 10th 2007 2:14PM]

These would be the perfect solution for college campuses everywhere, instead of students stealing the dring (through various methods)m they could just "earn" their beverages by watching ads. I love it. (It would be awesome if they employed google's eyeball watcher).

[yao @ May 10th 2007 2:19PM]

just like when checking math problems in grade school, you should make sure the numbers add up, or are at least in the ballpark. say the subsidy is $0.5, giving you a 50 cent drink for 30 seconds of ads. over a period of a hour, you could watch 120 ads, giving you 120 drinks, or $60 worth of drinks. admittedly, it wouldn't *really* be $60 worth of drinks. probably more along the lines of $20 at wholesale prices, but still, for many people it would be more worthwhile to look at ads than to work.

in order for this to to be viable, they either have to make the ads longer, or the subsidy smaller.

[ChronoZaga @ May 10th 2007 2:35PM]

By the time this gets out of Japan, the ad agencies will have you paying full price and still having to watching the ad before dispensing the drink.

[Muu @ May 10th 2007 2:49PM]

If they're doing this in conjunction with the cell phone wallet thing, I can see it sort of working -- unless you have multiple phones you won't be able to get multiple drinks, you won't have to let bums that wouldn't be affected by the ads get free stuff, plus you could throw ads onto their pretty little phones after the matter of fact.

[X-Dude @ May 10th 2007 3:29PM]

I do agree that we would put our dollar or whatever into the machine, only to watch an ad and THEN get our carbonated beverage.

[noots @ May 10th 2007 3:38PM]

homeless people are going to be all over this.

[MarkZ @ May 10th 2007 6:33PM]

If only they had more buying power :)

[Caffiend @ May 10th 2007 4:36PM]

Until I make more than $60 an hour, and even then because I'm a cheap bastard.

[o0adam0o @ May 11th 2007 9:05AM]

Well altho the "non-alcoholic" part bursted my bouble, i realised alcoholic drinks would just make a hangout spot for bums and urine...

[James @ May 10th 2007 4:57PM]

Agree w/ Chrono -- the Great Carnac predicts that as time goes by, the ads will get longer and longer, and the subsidies smaller and smaller, and the "optional" part may just disappear...

[segovia101 @ May 13th 2007 12:36PM]

It's a dumb idea that is better PR than the actual model itself. All they have to do is have a monitor that loops the ads for all passers by. When a customer approaches it could start to play a 30 second clip from the beginning.

Alternatively it could be setup so that when the customer enters the first digit of the code the machine knows what ad to play and by the time the drink is dispensed the ad is over.

I hate advertising and PR. Manipulating our minds, telling us what to think and preying on our hopes and fears - for cash.

[Tom @ May 10th 2007 5:13PM]

What product can you reliably market to someone too cheap to buy a soda? haha! If you're THAT much of a penny-pincher that's gonna be tough getting you to buy something! Seems like kinda a self-defeating strategy...

[Shii @ May 10th 2007 5:33PM]

Sounds nice, but when you really need a drink there will be a huge line of people all wanting several free ones, and you'll have to wait. Of course, by the time you get to the front, all the free stuff will be gone and you'll still have to pay for the premium options.

That's why this only works in Japan :)

[VJH @ May 10th 2007 8:49PM]

Just to point it out...this isn't a caned or bottled drink dispenser, it's only doling out the beverage in a paper cup. So, the wholesale costs of the free drinks are a lot lower than they would be if they were individually packaged, and there'll be no stocking up. Also, since the said drinkies are mixed in the machine from syrup and water, you'll be standing there for 30 s anyway. I'm sure they can't force you to watch the ad, but what else are you going to look at?

[barnz2k @ May 10th 2007 10:50PM]

awesome. free pocari sweat anyone?
If i see one ill try and tape it.

[grjohnston @ May 11th 2007 3:51PM]

Is free really such a big difference from a dollar, or just fifty cents? Not that I wouldn't buy from a free one, it's just that people are making all these predictions about homeless people. Alcohol is already in vending machines in Japan, for a dollar, and there aren't a bunch of hobos hanging around them urinating the one or two beers that they could probably manage to scrounge up the change for. But suddenly, unlimited free beer--or unlimited free anything--and bunches of people are just going to sit around them, non-stop? I just don't see why people think that it's somewhere between a dollar and free that there's a sudden flip from uninterested to obsessed. These are basically going to be water-fountains with more interesting beverages coming out, and that amount of interestingness I don't think is worth less than a dollar such that everyone starts completely modifying their behaviour.

[Layla @ May 13th 2007 11:30AM]

What will happen is... for a while you'll get free drinks in exchange for watching the ads.. Then it will become discounted drinks, and the ads will get longer. Then it will become everyone has to watch the ad for no discount, and if you want the drink without watching the ad, because you're in a rush, you'll have to pay an extra amount of money to skip the ad. Stupid greed.

[charles lawoe @ Aug 4th 2007 2:26PM]

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