Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/24/is-this-a-water-fountain-or-a-torture-device-thanks-sodastream.html
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15 Likes
As well as making you watch ads, it’s facilitating the ongoing land theft and oppression of an entire people.
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Considering drinking fountains are required by building code (quantity, accessibility, etc) and are based on occupant load, I really wonder how long these shenanigans will continue to happen before the building owner gets sued. Building code is adopted by municipalities into their municipal code and is essentially quasi-law. Note that charging the public to use the toilets in a public building is also illegal, so this is really getting close to that.
20 Likes
These need to be fought, anything from complaining to outright vandalizing the machine. This cannot become the norm, but you know it will the moment they think people will accept it.
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To add insult to injury - Philly is an expensive airport to fly out of and into. I’m headed to BWI for my next flight. Even with the ~$100 Amtrak added on, it’s still less expensive. I’ll be on the lookout for enshittified water fountains… 
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Someone has been reading The Space Merchants for advice. We should probably ontologically reassign them as a precautionary measure.
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“The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.”
He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.”
“I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.” – PKD
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This is a test market for disaster capitalism. Some people (and fictional people, my friend) are just drooling at the thought of monetising water scarcity.
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Covering the ads/screen with stickers?
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Printed with: “Water is a human necessity, not an advertising opportunity”.
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I don’t see how this could function in any way other than pissing people off at Sodastream and the airport, but especially Sodastream. (I expect they’ll start installing toilet paper dispensers that require you to watch a certain number of ads for every square of paper it gives you.) The whole thing is so counterproductive - both for Sodastream and the basic functioning of the airport.
It’s somewhat ironic this is happening at the Philadelphia Airport, given the city’s history with water fountains:
This is the kind of thing that even if it’s not illegal under current laws and regulations, sure should be made so.
It’s been happening in some countries for years…
10 Likes
That’s a good low risk one. I don’t want anyone to get arrested over it, but these need to be instantly too expensive to maintain. So maybe puncturing the speakers, if there’s a sound component…
Also complaining to Sodastream, the airport, and shaming them publicly (like BB is doing with this post). This needs to go away faster than Wendy’s attempt at surge pricing.
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Not sure if they make the TSA peevish or not; but ad screens always seem like a great use case for the humble automatic centre punch.
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Does it dispense Brawndo (it has electrolytes)?
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Think about the dimwittedness of the eager go-getter in marketing who came up with this idea. Now multiply that by the salary multiples of the executives who approved it.
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if this thing requires an app, what are people without smartphones supposed to do? whither away and die?
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They closed the West Bank factory ten years ago.
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Next: A public commode that stays locked shut until you watch a 90-second advertisement for Charmin toilet tissue.
Bonus Reminder: The water you get from a municipal tap is often cleaner and held to higher health standards than the fancy water sold by multibillion-dollar corporations trying to squeeze a buck out of every aspect of basic survival (Flint, Michigan being a famous exception rather than the rule):
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SodaStream did end up moving that factory into the Negev Desert, away from illegal settlements… but this only displaced Bedouins that lived there. The latest I can find is that Israel only approved work permits for about 130 of the 600 Palestinians that were previously employed when the facility was located in illegally occupied territory. SodaStream is owned by PepsiCo now.
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I’m old enough to have lived through the (thankfully) brief experiment with coin-operated public toilets. People were rightfully upset and they didn’t last long.
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