Smoke Gets in Your Ears

Now that cigarette commercials are banned from radio as well as TV, some tobacco men are examining a device that can deliver a recorded 20-second commercial from cigarette vending machines. Called ACMRU (Audio Commercial Message Repeating Unit), the new product sits atop a cigarette machine and resembles an illuminated advertising sign the size of two shoe boxes placed end to end. When an unsuspecting smoker puts his first coin in the slot, ACMRU can launch into any one of 16 to 20 spoken messages or singing jingles from a cassette tape player concealed inside.

Developed by Castagna Electronics of Brooklyn, N.Y., the squawk box will sell for about $100. A. Frederick Greenberg, president of Castagna, is counting on fervid competition among the tobacco companies to equip as many cigarette machines as possible with ACMRUs that will broadcast messages. After all, vending machines dispense an average of 22 competing brands. Greenberg says that ACMRU is aimed at the 250,000 vending machines in "prime high-traffic areas"--mostly offices, factories and bars. The messages could be audible at up to 20 ft. but Greenberg does not think that they will be annoying. "Well," he says, "you don't have to stand there and listen to it."

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