Guest Post by Brendan Wilde –
A bold new marketing strategy is capturing the attention of pedestrians near a bus stop in the UK and piquing interest around the world. The interactive advertisement gives observers the choice to opt-in to facial recognition technology that determines gender before displaying the full ad content.
The software uses an HD camera to measure facial features — the distance between the eyes, length of the jawbone, shape of the cheekbone, and width of the nose — to conclude whether the onlooker is male or female. The ad content that follows is based on that conclusion.
Accurate up to 90 percent of the time, the £30,000 system does not store data. The groundbreaking interactive advertising using facial recognition, touch screen, and sound, is a first for the UK and provides a glimpse into how technology is changing the face of marketing. The must-see ad will remain active for only two weeks at the busy bus stop on Oxford Street.
For girls and women, a 40-second audio/video ad follows, while boys and men are directed to the website of children’s charity Plan UK. Why? To make a point about the lack of choice girls face in much of the developing world.
Plan UK works to help the world’s poorest girls achieve access to education and the ability to make more of their own choices about how to lead their lives. Denied education, millions of girls are forced into early marriage, and thousands bear children while still children themselves.
The mesmerizing ad focuses on the lives of three 13-year-old girls from different countries, showing video footage of their lives as they narrate.
“Millions of girls across the globe are being denied the right and choice to have an education. This ad is a deliberate attempt to raise public debate on this issue. Plan’s Because I am a Girl campaign works with women and men, girls and boys, to challenge the discrimination that girls face as a result of their sex. We work to challenge negative stereotypes,” said Plan UK CEO Marie Staunton.
While males are denied access to the audio/video ad, the campaign works with everyone to challenge discrimination based on gender. Men are welcomed and encouraged to learn more and to join in the fight to provide girls with choices. For more information about the ad and the campaign, visit choicesforgirls.org.uk
