[118] in Humor
HUMOR? "Free" long-distance calls
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (abennett@MIT.EDU)
Thu Mar 3 16:56:59 1994
From: abennett@MIT.EDU
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 03 Mar 94 16:52:53 EST
I saw this in the 3/2/94 New York Times, too. Scary, isn't it?
-Drew
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 94 13:18:02 MST
From: rmerz@redwood.hac.com (Rulane Merz)
From: Stephen Springer <srs@taurus>
> ...
> Commercial Long-Distance Phone Calls
> Business Week Aug 16, 1993
>
> Tired of paying long-distance telephone rates? A small startup in New
> York City could soon have the lowest rate of all: Free. The catch?
> Radio-like commercials would periodically interrupt your chat.
>
> A caller would punch in a special access code to connect with Xadax
> Inc.'s computers, which would then place the call using long-distance
> lines leased from another carriers. When the phones connect, the
> computer asks the parties to punch in information such as age and sex
> to determine which commercials to play during the course of the call.
> In return for footing a share of the phone bill, Xadax would give
> advertisers access to a wealth of demographic information, length and
> time of call, what geographic areas are called most, number of ads
> played per call, and so on. Mathew Lederman, president of Xadax, says
> that the setup has worked in limited trials, but he hopes to raise
> enough interest to try out the system nationwide later this year.
What a great opportunity for Spoken Language System technology!
Caller A: Hi Jim, how ya doin'?
Caller B: Oh, not so hot, my back's been bothering me.
Caller A: Gee, that's--
Xadax: DON'T LET BACK PAIN KEEP YOU FROM ENJOYING LIFE! TYLENOL'S
NEW EXTRA STRONG BACK-RELIEF-FORMULA...[20 seconds of this]
Caller A: Sorry about that, it's the only way I could afford the call.
Caller B: That's okay, I know how it is to be short on funds--
Xadax: NEED EXTRA CASH QUICK? DIAL 1-800-LOAN-YES! WE NEVER TURN DOWN
ANYONE WITH SALEABLE COLLATERAL...
And so on.
That's the problem with high technology. You always end up working for
the direct marketers.
-steve
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