When I wrote about smart and stupid innovation, I cited the 2006 Ig Nobel award for the Mosquito that “emits a high frequency siren-like noise that is painful to the ears of teens and those in their early 20s, but inaudible to adults.” It was commercialized for sale as a “teen repellant” by Compound Security Systems, successful in the UK and was starting to ship to the US.

Then I read how kids had co-opted it to make a ringtone that adults don’t hear, so they could leave their cell phones on during school.

Now, a step further, instead of a teen repellent, it’s being used as a teen attractor, as described in a tiny blurb in BW’s UpFront, quoted here in it’s entirety.

“Yum! Brands’ KFC will use high-frequency sound—not to repel the much publicized rodents that recently plagued one of its New York outlets, but to appeal to young people. The company is deploying the Mosquito Ringtone popular with teen mobile users to sell its boneless chicken bucket. (The tone can’t be heard by most over-30s.) The TV ads will emit the noise, with KFC giving free chicken buckets to the first 1,000 viewers who go online and say just when in the ad the tone played.”

Revolution—evolution. Now one can only wonder if its original function still works.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Business info, Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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