Shell gas stations in the US have been showing ads on the main machine for years, I’ve never seen them on the handle before. I hate it. I would expect them to break “accidentally” quite often.
Fun fact for most of these on-pump advertisements: if you see eight buttons in two columns, hitting the third row(?) second column button should mute the speaker.
Fuck these abominations, fuck the oil industry, fuck the advertising industry, and fuck the snack and beverage companies that advertise their poison on these devices.
Where I am it was the second down on the right side, but recently the button to mute stopped working around where I live. I have a friend who just sticks his keys through the the speaker grates to kill the speakers lol
I’ve always seen comments like this when this topic gets brought up, but it’s never worked for me at any pump. I usually start pressing all the buttons when the ad plays, but never any luck
Just get sharper keys!
To anybody thinking about vandalizing this thing:
DONT BREAK IT, not the screen, not the speakers and none of its electronics, you can create a shortcut, then a spark and YOU WILL KILL YOURSELF or the next person that uses the pump.
Paint and stickers are the way to go.
The likelihood that you get any kind of meaningful arc from puncturing a speaker is almost none, theyre not gonna drive those speakers with high voltage. Especially improbable since you’re likely just destroying the speaker diaphragm, so an arc may not even be feasible from the type of damage done.
When myth busters tested whether cell phones, and then arcing (like from static discharge) would blow you up at the gas station, they had to use a large continuous arc from a neon sign transformer (extremely high voltage) and a sealed box full of the ideal fuel to air ratio of gasoline vapors to get an explosion.
Puncturing a speaker isnt unlikely to ever have to have either of those things. You’re unlikely to get an arc, and there should be like a zero percent chance of a meaningful build up of fuel vapors in an open air setting where the vapors have to make out of the narrow choke of the fuel tank opening, where the nozzle and its rubber splash guard thing are blocking its route, and all the way to where the speaker is
Do you by any chance have any experience working with electricity to back up your concerns?
there should be like a zero percent chance of a meaningful build up of fuel vapors in an open air setting where the vapors have to make out of the narrow choke of the fuel tank opening, where the nozzle and its rubber splash guard thing are blocking its route, and all the way to where the speaker is
Sure buddy, handle one of those with a cigarette and see what happens. (/s fucking dont)
Do you by any chance have any experience working with electricity to back up your concerns?
I have diplomas on the subject, professional experience and training, yes. Engineering regulations are written on blood and cemeteries are full of smart asses that dont follow them, that all I have to say.
While I feel theres a slight difference between a lit cigarette while operating a gas pump, and the possible spark from breaking the diaphragm in a low voltage speaker behind grates in the pump body- you know what fair enough. Usually when I see or participate in folks talking about electricity dangers online its folks who have no clue what theyre talking about.
A couple of months ago I was in an argument with folks on lemmy who thought if you put a nine volt battery against your nipple it’d electrocute you. At one point I went and grabbed a nine volt to take a picture of literally pressed against my skin just to prove my point 😅. A lot of folks seem to mythologize electricity and its dangers, sometimes it even seems to come from folks claiming to have electrical work backgrounds or engineering degrees
Regardless, hope you have a good day, take care :)
They updated the grates over the speaker or have been putting them behind the screen recently around here.
They’ve been disabling the mute buttons
…& the oversized SUV they drove in with
You wouldn’t likely see it on the handle in the US because it’s uncommon to hold the handle. Most people prop the catch so that it stays running on its own.
We also have probably 1000x the number of pumps In the US. Maybe more.
I’ve been thinking of gluing maxi pads to the speakers when they blare ads at me, but my wife told me they’re too expensive.
I’m so glad my country has strict rules around where advertising can be displayed.
bully for you
Looks like the perfect application for one of those awful shipping labels that tear into a million pieces when you try to remove them
Egg shell stickers!
I’m still looking for the asshole that invented those. Please tell me if you know who he is?
Follow the money. Maybe the googone people
Omg!! This is going to be a IRL chair company sequel!
Vandalize it.
I’m usually not in favor of this sort of thing. But I think there are some instances where that may be justified. This screen serves ZERO public benefit. It’s just there to annoy you. So IMHO doing something like 3d printing a cover that you leave on the screen is a public service.
99% of advertisements serve zero public benefit. Its in society’s best interest to actively hinder them whenever possible IMO.
Advertisement is the ruling classes’ graffiti. Obliterating it is a public service.
All right well I hate to disagree but advertisements do support a lot of websites and news organizations, or at least they used to before the tech Giants took most of the advertising money.
The question is not whether they support a business model, it’s whether they are good for humanity. And they are bad for humanity from a socioeconomic perspective because it is labor power spent with negative net use value produced.
Compare it with imperialist wars: they are the business model of the entire MIC, and yet I hope you agree that wars of aggression are bad.
Yes this is an invitation to it. Destroy that shit.
This company went bankrupt btw 💯 I can only hope whatever chain decided to try this shit got ostracized too.
I’ve started leaving if the thing shows me an ad, I just put the nozzle back the second the ad plays, gets me enough fuel to get to a non compromised station.
The most fucked is full serve stations with the ads. While my windows are up so Im safe, the poor staff have to listen to an entire gas station worth of pumps blaring ads all day.
Advertising should be illegal.
I found a patch for the problem.
Very Cyberpunky. The bad parts of Cyberpunk that is.
a can of black spray paint might do the job well.
Gorilla tape.
Damn, thought only the US was crazy enough to have ads at the pump. This is a whole other level.
My lord, there’s nothing in this world worse than a dumb gas nozzle!
How I sleep knowing that with my new second hand EV, I never have to visit a gas station ever again:
!ZzzzZZzz!<
Does the ad need to be playing to dispense fuel or would these work just fine if they got accidentally dropped really hard?
Here in the u.s they have insanely loud fucking screens that scream commercials at you.
Like volume to the max.
Usually the physical buttons on the side will mute that. One of them do. Just press all of them next time
I will definitely try this. Thank you for the tip.
