How many times have you been going about your usual business of cheating on your spouse, being an idiot around your boss, or drunkenly harassing fellow party-goers when some wildly irresponsible person tags you in a photo and posts it online? What's that? "Never," you say? Well congratulations on being an alright human being then. You can feel good about the fact that you don't need the Norte Photoblocker to ruin any potentially damaging photos of your night out as they're being taken.
It may sound like something dreamed up by a cheesy men's magazine as a joke, but apparently this is a real thing that actually exists. Ostensibly, the Norte Photoblocker is a functional beer cooler surrounded by four sensors that can detect the flashes from cameras or cell phones. If a flash goes off in the direction of the Photoblocker, it fires its own flash to flood the resulting photos with bright white and obscure anyone nearby. It's similar technology to the clutch bag from a couple years ago that was designed for celebrities hoping to strike back at the paparazzi, or the car accessory that obscures stop light cameras. In this case, a cautious individual would just need to set the Photoblocker near them while at a bar or club to ensure their nightlife stays private (at least until they decide to move somewhere else, where they'll have to repeatedly explain to everyone why they're carrying an electric blue wastebasket).
The Norte Photoblocker is the brainchild of South American beer brand Cerveza Norte and Brazil-based ad agency Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi. The agency has actually field-tested the device in a few bars in Argentina and found they work exactly as promised. "People took lots of photos that ended up being blurry beyond recognition and then uploaded them to social media anyway," says Maxi Itzkoff, executive creative director at Del Campo. All joking aside, the Norte Photoblocker could also appeal to the privacy-conscious club goer who doesn't lead a life of constant abandon and just wants a night out without worrying about an acquaintance posting photos online of their drunken fun. Del Campo however has decided to focus on the sleazier uses for the gadget in the accompanying ad campaign. Check out the none-too-subtle commercials below to see how the Norte Photoblocker can be used to save your job, your marriage, and your reputation.
Source: Fast Company
