Do You Want Your Urinal to Talk to You?

All kinds of digital goodies are infiltrating night spots, including smart customer cards, computerized ordering systems, MP3 jukeboxes, and urinal ads that talk to you:

“Urinal ads are the most effective form of advertising in a club,” said nightclub consultant Dave Hollingworth. “Guys don’t want to look at each other in the urinal. They’re more than happy to stare at an ad,” he said, noting that over the next year, male clubgoers will see more video monitors in bathrooms.

For now, microchips are being combined with motion sensors to create chatty advertisements in the bathroom. Patrons who think the ad above the urinal is talking to them haven’t had too much Old Style–it’s an increasingly popular way for bathroom ads to get noticed.

Right now, the best place to see the revolution at work is at Lava Lounge in Wicker Park, where ads for the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye edition begin talking after patrons close the bathroom door. [Chicago Tribune]