The ‘intelligent’ advert: Scanners to determine gender before sending messages according to sex

By
David Baker

Last updated at 2:36 AM on 20th February 2012

A street advert which uses facial-recognition technology to tell men from women is to be used for the first time.

The electronic hoarding, to be unveiled on a bus stop in London’s Oxford Street this week, plays a 40-second advertisement – with a different message depending on the gender of who is looking at it.

Only women will be able to view the full message, which is for a charity promoting female education worldwide. Men will just be directed to its website.

Intelligent ad: A unique new advert which deciphers your gender before relaying a message accordingly will appear at a bus stop shelter like tis in Oxford Street

Intelligent ad: A unique new advert which deciphers your gender before relaying a message accordingly will appear at a bus stop shelter like tis in Oxford Street

The advert echoes 2002 Tom Cruise thriller Minority Report, in which billboards directly targeted individuals.

According to the Independent on Sunday
it will guess their gender based on the distance between their eyes, the
width of their nose and the shape of their jawline.

A spokesman for the charity, Plan UK, said: ‘We’re not giving men the choice to see the full ad – so they get a glimpse of what it’s like to have basic choices taken away.’

Privacy campaigners condemned the advert as ‘creepy’ and experts said it marked a future of personal advertising with ‘no boundaries’.

Neil Chapman, the head of the creative team behind the ad at Clear Channel UK, defended claims by campaigners at The Open Rights Group that the idea was ‘creepy’ – and told the Independent that it would not store any personal details.

Digital marketing consultant Steven
Hess added that such technology marked the ‘beginning of a shift from
essentially dumb advertising to intelligent advertising’ and that it
meant that in the future there would be ‘no boundaries’.

Educating: The new campaign, which aims to get girls all over the world in to education, will target more women than men

Educating: The new campaign, which aims to get girls all over the world in to education, will target more women than men

As part of the charity’s ‘Because I Am A
Girl’ campaign’, the advert – which will have a two-week trial – will
use a high-definition camera to scan the multitude of shoppers in the
busy street.

The campaign highlights that at least 75 million girls around the world are not in school. 

It points out that educated girls are less likely to marry and to have children whilst still children themselves and that they are more likely to be literate, healthy and survive into adulthood.

Charity: Bintou from Mali is one of the young girls used to promote Plan UKs 'Because I Am A Girl' campaign

Charity: Bintou from Mali is one of the young girls used to promote Plan UKs ‘Because I Am A Girl’ campaign

Neil Chapman, the head of the
creative team behind the ad at Clear Channel UK, defended claims by
campaigners at The Open Rights Group that the idea was ‘creepy’ – and
told the Independent that it would not store any personal details.

Digital marketing consultant Steven
Hess added that such technology marked the ‘beginning of a shift from
essentially dumb advertising to intelligent advertising’ and that it
meant that in the future there would be ‘no boundaries’.

‘This will in turn move people from a life of poverty to a future with opportunity.

‘Everyone has a role to play, including boys and men.’

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