QR codes, those little crossword-puzzle-like bar codes, have popped up in a lot of different places -- movie posters, bus stops, magazines and Web sites among them.
But not usually the side of 25-ton New York City Sanitation trucks. That's where the city is putting QR codes as part of a broader
campaign on TV and online to boost awareness about recycling.
Scanning the QR codes placed on the sides of 2,200
sanitation trucks will give users access to a how-to-recycle video from NYC Media's show "The Green Apple: Recycling." In upcoming weeks, it will then link to a how-to video on recycling from content
partner Howcast.
This isn't the first time New York City has used QR codes in a promotional campaign. It put up giant ones on buildings around Times Square during Internet Week, allowing
mobile users to get more information about various city services.
"New Yorkers have already been coming to our channels and our website for who, where, when and why -- now they can add
'how,'" said NYC Media Chief Operating Officer Todd Asher in a statement. "We are also enthusiastic about continuing to use QR code technology and other innovative technology to help get the City's
message out."
But it looks as if the brain trust at City Hall has jumped the shark by slapping the codes on its fleet of garbage trucks. Putting the QR codes on moving -- albeit slow-moving
-- vehicles, raises the possibility of onlookers getting flattened in the course of trying to learn more about recycling. (The technology requires city denizens get within 12 to 16 feet to scan the
codes.) The city has clearly embraced the push for mobile innovation too literally.
Then there's the stench factor. Who wants to sidle up to a garbage truck in the middle of a steamy New
York City summer unless it's your job to haul refuse? And isn't it possible you could get in the way of the people trying to do that job as you position yourself and focus your mobile camera to snap
a photo of the QR code? Who knows, it could lead to a garbage strike over hazardous working conditions. Then the city would really have an odor problem.
The city is doing a PR push around
the recycling education effort, but how many people associate sanitation trucks with advertising? Buses, taxis, pedicabs, yes, but not garbage trucks. It may only be hardcore mobile geeks (or
recycling enthusiasts) who even notice the QR codes are there. Someone tell Mayor Bloomberg it's time to go back to the billboard.