Say what you will about the risks of self-driving cars, but no robot has ever been told, “Eyes up here, buster.”
Recently, the Russian advertising company AdvTruck pioneered the concept of placing billboards on 30 vehicles and driving them through Moscow traffic. It “represents a new and effective advertising format — advertising on the sides of city trucks,” the company’s site explains. “Such a format is a budget alternative to billboards in the city!”
That would simply be obnoxious in most circumstances — not insanely dangerous — except AdvTruck chose this somewhat distracting image for its trial run:
According to the Daily Mail, Moscow police had to respond to 517 accidents. The advertisement’s text apparently says “They Attract,” but that play on words was supposed to mean customers, not ambulances. And the company is promising to reimburse drivers for any costs that insurance won’t cover.
We were a little skeptical of this report, because boob-related news (much like, uh, y’know) can be too good to be real. So we phoned AdvTruck. The guy who answered could only talk for half a minute — we’re guessing he has a few calls from lawyers right now — but confirmed, “Yes, yes, it’s true,” adding, “We have some problems, but it’s OK now.”
We then asked if anybody had been seriously injured. “It’s not big crashes but small crashes,” he said.
Good to know. Then again, you’ve gotta die somehow, and — many guys would agree — flying face-first into that photo wouldn’t be the worst way to go out.
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