Smart Ad Can Tell Men From Women

Fans of sci-fi films might be delighted to hear that the future is closer than ever, with a brand new advertising campaign that will allow only women to see the full ad, thanks to advanced technology such as face recognition.

The new ad launched on 22 February, on a bus stop in Oxford Street in London. It was commissioned by Plan UK, a charity that promotes equal education rights for children of both genders in developing countries, and is part of its “Because I Am a Girl” campaign. The ad will be on trial for two weeks.

Different content will be displayed, according to the viewer’s gender. Thanks to an HD camera viewers’ faces will be scanned and their gender determined according to facial metrics – distance between the eyes, jawline length, nose width and cheekbone shape. Designers claim that the guesses will be over 90% accurate.

If a man looks at the ad he will be shown a message directing him to the charity’s website, but if a woman stands in front of the ad, a 40-second video will be displayed. The ad designers have been inspired by the 2002 Tom Cruise film Minority Report, which features billboards that address people individually, and claim that no data will be saved or recorded, so people concerned about their privacy need not worry.