A company appropriately named “Wizmark” is taking urinal cakes into the 21st century. They’ve gone beyond “your logo here” paradichlorobenzene blocks and have ones that feature lenticular images (images that change depending on the angle at which you look at them) and ones that play sound files or animations whenever the motions or actions of a “user” are detected.
Wizmark has signed a “first of its kind” deal with the cable channel CMT (Country Music Telelvision) to place their cakes in urinals at bars, concert halls and universities to promote its Outlaws TV series.
There’s more in this Register article. My favourite parts of the article are the quotes, such as this one from James Hitchcock, CMT’s Vice President of Marketing, who seems a bit too enthusiastic about marketing via urinal cake:
The new interactive urinal communicator from Wizmark enables CMT to target a very captive and vulnerable audience . . .,” said James Hitchcock, vice president of marketing at CMT.
The social protocols of the use of a urinal — the unwritten rule not to look left or right — guarantees undivided and undistracted visual attention along with the concurrent audio delivery of the ‘Don’t miss OUTLAWS on CMT’ tune-in message. This new marketing tool is unexpected, unapologetic and good humored.
Another gem comes from Dr. Richard Deutsch, holder of patent 6,640,350, the patent for Wizmark’s interactive urinal cakes. He may be the first person to wax philosophical about urinal cakes (or at least the first person to do so on the record):
Beginning with early attempts at writing one’s name in the snow, there has already been an element of recreation associated with urination for men.
If Wizmark’s marketing team plays their cards right, they could probably make a mint from the upcoming 2008 presidential elections. Or perhaps the Nintendo Wii.