Talking, singing, skating robots pushing Coke

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 9

Talking, singing, skating robots pushing Coke

■NZPA-Reuter Atlanta, p Georgia I In supermarkets all over j j the United States 1.251 metre-high figures will soonil j be blinking and beeping and ; trying to persuade shoppers 1 ■ to buy a particular brand of Isoft drink. i Using an army of robots, ; the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola (Company and its bottlers! (have undertaken a big new! I promotional campaign. I The 45 kg robots, or an-1 (droids, as their developers' (prefer to call them, move on ; three rubber-tyred feet, talk, (sing (“have a Coke and a( I smile”) whistle, and rotate) their domes, in Atlanta last J week one went ice-skating. | I So far, bottlers in the (United States and several ini Japan, Australia, and Denmark have deployed 41 I robots. Forty more are on • order. “Within a year,” said Mr Ronald G. Green, the developer of the robot, “we hope to have 300 distributed among the 1200 bottlers world-wide.” The 31-year-old Mr Green is president of Promotional Concepts, Inc., an Atlanta company that designed and produced the first robot for the local bottler, which was interested in developing a “physical” mascot for its At-1 lanta market. The robots have already been prowling along super-, market aisles, advancing on amused or stunned softdrink buyers, and quacking in hollow, metallic tones, “You have made a wisei

I decision” to those picking up a carton of Coca-Cola, or (“You have made an illogical | decision” to those who select another brand. “If you will trade your brand for Coke, I will dance for you,” the robot says. “I can disco, boogie-woogie, and I can do the Bump.” The plastic-and-steel cylin- ! ders, a cousin to R2D2, of (“Star Wars,” are powered: Iby a 12-volt battery and( ( given voice and motion by ( I remote radio control and! wireless microphone. Internal eight-track! recordings and four stereo: (speakers supply music, ( 'beeps, and computer sound ( ! They are the colour andj shape of a can of Coke, and; : they can change costumes to! represent other Coca-Cola: products. They cost $6500 ( each. Besides supermarket patrols, the little machines also perform civic duties, lead parades, and visit hospitals. One version, dubbed Kobot the robot, the “official mascott” of the CocaCola Company, has been used ! extensively to promote the international special Olym- ( pics for the handicapped and is making a 23-city tour to raise money for the United States Olympic Fund. It was in this connection that Kobot was flown to Lake Placid recently to ply the ice rink with Gus Lussi. the Olympic figure-skating coach, and Dick Button and Dorothy Hamill, who won gold medals for figure skatjing in previous Olympics.