According to the Pink Tentacle, Internet content creator Hertz has launched a new marketing service called “QR Ebi-sen,” which allows companies and individuals to print QR code on shrimp crackers.
QR code is a very popular type of two-dimensional code superior to old-fashioned bar codes that enjoys widespread use in Japan, connecting users to mobile Web content when they scan it with a cellphone that can read QR codes, which many or most can.
Using natural dye extracted from tamarind seeds, the QR code is printed on the smooth surface of white crackers provided by ebi senbei manufacturer Shimahide, whose factory is located in the city of Kanonji in Kagawa prefecture — a place known for delicious ebi senbei. The resulting cracker has a high-contrast, high-quality image readable by a cellphone QR code scanner. The price for the service starts at 10,000 yen ($85), with an additional fee based on the number of crackers printed.
Seriously: would anyone actually take a picture of their Ebi-sen and then take the time to find out what product it was for? I can see someone doing that the first one or two times they encounter this version of a QR code, but I can see the novelty wearing off very quickly. At least with the billboard photos I have seen of ads in Tokyo you know what you are selecting to download to your phone, but with this you don’t really have any idea to what the QR Code pertains.
BTW: Americans on this site have likely seen the commercial touting Pop-Tarts with Trivial Pursuit questions printed on them. Could we see QR codes on them someday?
I didn’t know remora had his own paper, so he is a serious writer or is he just all arms and legs swinging freely with the current.
‘According to the Pink Tentacle’
[…] Well… sounds at least a little bit more useful than QR code on shrimp chips […]