Idk if this is the right instance for this, but how fucking tired of these forced ads at gas pumps is everyone else?
I’m paying 4 bucks a gallon to have you shove advertising down my throat like an erect cock?
What the actual fuck
Anyone have any good ad blocking practices for this?
I’ve seen duct or painters tape covering the speakers…
You can press a button next to the screen to mute it, but this doesn’t work at all gas stations. (Usually its the 2nd from the top on the right side)
I guess its just time to gettoblast music every time I pump gas like back when I was 19…
I would probably bring a really thick permanent marker with me and some chewing gum for the speakers. I’m lucky enough to live in an area that has pretty good cycling infrastructure so I don’t have to deal with that shit. I’m sorry you do though.
"People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs."
– Banksy
That’s why my hobby is firing infrared lasers at soviet early launch warning satellites.
Interested in a Adam Curtis video on the merger of psychology, marketing, and politics?
Big city problems. This is why I love living in the sticks
I don’t live in a big city, by any stretch - but I guess it’s not the sticks, because we have that shit around here. And not just the busiest gas stations, by the highway. I hate it.
I’m not sure when you live but I’ve only ever seen that crap in big cities
Costco pumps dont have ads. Only fuel there. Set the other gas starion on fire
Yeah I need to pay a yearly subscription, and wait in line for 30 minutes (wasting gas) in order to pump it. Yeah let’s do that
For the pumps that the mute button doesn’t work: carry a small screwdriver, 1/8", flat blade, insert into center of speaker then pull sideways to severe the coil wire.
Great idea, it’s not like every single gas station is riddled with cameras and you have a license plate they can track you with or anything….
It doesn’t effect the operation of the pump and takes a three second poke and twist. With no legitimate use of the speaker it would be months before it is noticed. Think they would scrub through tens of thousands of interactions with the pump and find that one person who leaned in a bit? Doubtful, and if so, minor vandalism charge and a small fine for months of quiet peace. Worth it in my book.
Some electronics have a way to test the system if the speaker is functional and can potentially kill the system, so that’s not even remotely true. Also, maybe they have to manually check the pump every morning when they turn the pumps on as part of their start up process.
You are a fool if you think stuff isn’t able to verify and test itself in todays age or they don’t have an employee checking stuff semi frequently…
In either case it wouldn’t be hard to go through a days footage, even easier if the system self tests and tells you when/if the problem occurred.
Tired of ads at the gas station? Carry a lighter
Can’t have a problem if the problem is atomized. You being right along with it may be a problem….
They too will get the screwdriver treatment!
Or just go to a different gas station instead of vandalizing property that’s not yours.
Every station I have gone to with them has had the mute button labeled or at least functional. If they didn’t, I would never return.
The only time they are useful is when they offer a coupon for something I was already going to buy, but that happens so infrequently I’d rather have my attention back.
The ones near me don’t, but it’s still there. Just push buttons till it’s quiet. For mine, it’s the fourth button.
The ones here, you can’t mute. Pisses me off so bad I will refuse to back to a gas station. I have even pulled up seen the ads on another pump and drove off. I’m fucking captive! Congrats on losing money greedy fucks!
Are there any potential repercussions for sticking a utility knife into the speaker grill?
In another thread someone said they carry a sharpie marker with them and label the button(s) you need to press to mute the audio for future people.
I also always have a sharpie on me and often use it to fix the missing labels on these pumps.
Most gas stations are monitored with cameras (often times with facial recognition), so they will be able to see your face and license plate, then charge you with vandalism.
Mild electric shock and a vandalism charge if caught. Worth it? I don’t know but I’m getting sick of the fucking ads
Edit: So stab then pump, instead of the other way around to avoid boom boom?
Push and hold the left and right top buttons to put it in maintenance mode. You can do everything normally, but no sound.
Does this work universally or is there a particular station you frequent that it works at?
Depends on the model of pump. Some of them you push one of the unlabeled buttons a few times (my local Shell it’s the 2nd one down on the right)
This drives me nuts too. Who the hell decided to do this? I avoid the stations with ads.
I never saw these before I visited the US. While tanking somewhere in eastern Texas, on my way from Houston to a tiny town south of New Orleans.
My “fix” was waiting in the car with bluetooth buds in, while the pump did its thing. Holy hell those were annoying.
Get an EV and you’ll never have to go to a gas station again. None of the chargers I’ve seen have ads on them.
Volta has level2 free chargers in some of the grocery stores in my area. Pretty big screens. I don’t pay attention to them when I’m charging while shopping.
All of the chargers I’ve seen have ads on them.
Maybe public ones but the good thing about electric is you plug in and either walk away or sit in your car you don’t need to be outside near the pump to charge.
That’s an interesting way to spin the fact that it takes so long to charge that it’s impractical to stand there and wait for it to finish.
If you turned the gas pump down to make it pump slowly enough, you could walk away from it while you wait, too.
Watch them start making chargers that hook up to your infotainment system and run ads all the way through your charging session.
Edit: period.
I don’t even have an EV and I have to see the ads on the chargers because they’re in front of the store I’m walking into. So far, I’ve only noticed that at grocery stores, but it’s annoying.
Not great for privacy or freedom though
They target the most common denominator. Once EVs are everywhere, look at the chargers getting filled with ads.
Maybe, but I don’t think it’s worth it. With a gas car, you stand idle at the pump for a few minutes making sure that nothing bursts into flames or gas doesn’t overflow. Charging an EV isn’t like that. They’ve got about 5 seconds of your time at the most.
Fast charging is constantly improving though, I wouldn’t be surprised if we reach a point where EV charging improves to a point where it takes roughly the same time as charging an ICE vehicle in the 2030s.
Lol that would be the ultimate first world problem. Charging so fast it makes more sense to stand at the plug than go into the store to pee.
Well, Toyota’s claims about batteries are intended to convince people not to buy EVs yet. They’re going to be SO much better real soon now so just buy another Toyota gas car and think about EVs next time.
It’s just another flavour of the anti-EV FUD Toyota has been spewing for a decade now. They’re also saying that hydrogen is the future and that gas will always be 70%+ of the car market, so you have your choice of anti-EV FUD. Consistency doesn’t matter when you’re running a disinformation campaign.
Still early in the enshittification cycle. It’ll happen eventually.
I wish advertisers would realize that forcing me to watch their ad against my will makes me actively hostile against their brand and/or product. If I remember their brand name from an intrusive ad I will not only not buy their products, I will go out of my way to give my money to their competitors.
Advertising is among the most studied psychological phenomenoms in the world. It’s not so much about getting you to buy their product but more about you remembering the brand. Ads work. That why they’re everywhere.
Sure I can name several brands that I’m not buying from either because of their ads… …but I remember the brands.
I’ve also cone to realize that this is the real purpose of ads.
Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world, you have the right idea, but the other key thing you should remember is to never talk about the corps to anyone, even if you’re dragging their name through the mud. “No such thing as bad press,” as they say.
It’s good to denounce the practice, but it seems naming and shaming specific companies just doesn’t work anymore at this stage.
I likely wouldn’t buy a diamond ring but I most certainly not buy one from a certain diamond store that has fucking annoying ads. They know who they are and if you are in Lower Mainland of BC, you know who I’m talking about. They can blow and choke on a red hot cock shaped metal rod. I’m glad I moved so far north that I won’t get any ads for them ever again.
Diamonds are scammed by Debeers anyway
Whenever someone brings this up, someone also brings up the fact that ads are proven to work in general not on everyone. So I guess it’s my turn today.
Yes, but in the context of whether or not to be scumbags about the gas pump they only care about the aggregate behavior. “I wish they would realize I make a mental note to never buy,” they do, tho. They don’t care because it convinces two or more other people to buy. Ads will continue getting worse because none of us will do collective action about it.
The next step is having to wait for the ad to complete before the gas will pump. “Premium” gas station membership for a fee will provide an ad-free experience, for now, but eventually it will come with ads too.
I am pretty sure this already happened to me. Had to wait before prompted to enter payment. :(
Costco has no ads for the time being, and I can’t see it going with ads because they can only slow the sale of gasoline that people already line up for after paying to access the ability to buy it.
And then once enough people buy the premium membership they’ll start putting ads on those, too.
Stahp
The one thing that would push people to electric. At least then you can charge at home and avoid gas stations.
Don’t worry; they’ll just start playing ads in the car itself before you are able to shift gears to drive.
Discounted electric rates on your ad-supported charging plug…
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One time I put in my card, but the pump couldn’t show me an ad because it crashed. My card was stuck in the pump. The guys inside tried resetting the pump but that didn’t work, so they said it’d be a week before someone came around to fix it. I had to cancel the card and get a new number. All because I couldn’t watch the ads.
Pliers woulda worked (from experience). I always keep a pair handy for this and other more practical reasons.
I’ve never seen a pump that took a card inside it like an ATM; did you mean the transaction was stuck or the physical card?
I’ve been to many a pump that instructs you to insert and leave your card, then ‘latches’ onto the card once you’ve inserted it, locking it into place until the authorization for the transaction is complete. I’ve seen them in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.
I’ve seen a lot of those. The card gets physically stuck until the machine decides that the payment is completed.
I’ve never seen one in Australia. We don’t really prepay for petrol here. Some servos in the dodgiest suburbs do make you between certain hours, but I’ve never seen one that makes everybody always prepay or one that actually takes your card. Most of the time you’d go inside to prepay anyways, but on the few pumps I’ve seen that do have card payments on the physical pump it’s either tap or swipe, no insert, and no holding cards hostage
I hope you paid them for the lost ad revenue you caused them to suffer.
I avoid gas stations that have ads. There’s a chain where I live that doesn’t do them, so they get all my business.
Its always the one gas station that is a little run down and is the common place for violent crime
I wish I could do this. There are none left in my area and I’m not drilling and refining my own gas.
good time to switch to organic, gluten-free, vegan, open source, self-hosted and family-grown biomass fuel
I do this too. Speedway and Shell play video ads on their pumps with no obvious mute options. I don’t buy gas there.
Never knew this was a thing, that better not come over here.
Thankfully only one near me does this and I’ve never gone back once I saw they had these installed. This is really the only way we’re ever going to see these practices phased out. Corporations don’t take anything seriously until it affects the bottom line. Just look at climate change.
I think getting this practice phased out would require a sustained social media campaign. Otherwise the MBAs just see mysterious fluctuations on their charts, and they’ll make up some vaguely-political theories about Millenials.
