Let's keep the light show in Vegas

You know those digital advertising hordings they have at pitch level at some football grounds? The incredibly annoying ones that distract you from the game and look to have been lifted from the garish end of the Las Vegas strip?

Well, imagine if miniture versions were being developed to use as packaging for consumer goods. And that they were going to be so cheap they could be used to label basic staples - like bread.

According to Wired.com, Siemens, the electronics group, “is readying a paper-thin electronic-display technology so cheap it could replace conventional labels on disposable packaging, from milk cartons to boxes of Cheerios.”

Apparently, the “polymer-based photochromic material” could be on the market within two years.

"When kids see flashing pictures on cereal boxes we don't expect them to just ask for the product, but to say, 'I want it,'" Axel Gerlt, an engineer at Siemens, told Wired.

But, as Wired notes, “not everyone thinks that's a good thing”.

“As advertisements increasingly permeate almost every aspect of our lives, the last thing we need is another attention-grabbing technology, said Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters Media Foundation and Buy Nothing Day.

"I think it is great for corporate advertising. I think it is great for advertising agencies. I think it is great for PR and marketing. But I don't think it is great for the mental health of the population," Mr Lasn said.

"We live in an age when we the people have lost control of our own culture that is being spoon-fed to us by marketers and advertising agencies - and that is where all of the breakthroughs are happening."

"I don't want to throw cold water on the technology until I have seen it, but I would like to look at the bigger picture at why we are going crazy, suffering from mood disorders or why so many kids are on Zoloft or Ritalin," Lasn said. "Let's look at the larger picture and deal with the pollution of our mental environment and see what it means for Siemens to throw one more very powerful, visual device into that."