Advertising Gone Wrong

Today, Acme Power Imaging announced it's rush-releasing a beta edition of its AD-CAT! digital medical advertising software in two hospitals in late August, undoubtedly (though they don't actually say it) so the company can put it through the Labor Day holiday spike in emergency room activity.

The way it works is this: Let's say you've run your skateboard and yourself under a pick-up truck or something and they've carted you off to the emergency room, where the doctor orders a CAT scan. They feed your sad, busted-up ass into the scan and lo and behold...digital visuals!--advertising projected right in front of you!

The great thing is--the ads are context-sensitive; for example, you probably won't see a Bud Lite ad if you've f*cked yourself up driving after having 15 beers.

"The beta test is part of a ongoing product discovery process," Rupert Sacbust, Acme Power's CEO, explained. "We're hoping to design an experience that gives maximum advertising traction for the dollar while remaining sensitive to the patients' needs. The commercial visuals will be interwoven with medical information that is patient specific."

When asked whether there are any plans to offer audio advertising, Sacbust demurred, "The audio's considered obtrusive in the clinical setting, but it may be a possibility in the future. We're seeing some promising results in our research using music subliminals with blunt force trauma patients."