If you’ve ever flown redeye, you’ve contemplated lancing off your eyelids just to complete the walk to baggage claim. Recognizing in this a prime marketing opportunity, South African coffee company Douwe Egberts stationed a coffee dispenser in O.R. Tambo International Airport, with one catch — it’s yawn operated.
In an Orwellian take on the barista, the dispenser uses facial recognition technology, accepting no cash, featuring no buttons and presumably being kick-proof. Prospective drinkers are instead frustrated into waving, poking and glowering at the dispenser until they either give up or their exhaustion overtakes them in the form of a yawn, at which point their exasperation is rewarded with a 15-cent cup of brown water.
So keep yawning, leering and mean-mugging at machines — thanks to modern marketing, you’re bound to get something for free!