And as J-AX sang last summer ... "the iphone has taken the place of a part of the body and in fact is competing to see who has it bigger" and ... from today in Japan even cleaner!
It was evident that the iPhone had long since become a part of the body, but who could have imagined that soon it would have the privilege of a roll of ad hoc toilet paper ?!
Well yes! The first toilet paper rolls for smartphones were recently installed in the bathrooms of Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, Japan, as a marketing initiative of the telephone operator NTT Docomo, famous for the first emojis.
These mini rolls to clean smartphone screens have been placed next to standard toilet paper and show in English, as well as a welcome message to Japan, not only the instructions for use, which recommend cleaning the device often, but also the indications to access the WI-FI network inside the airport.
This news will surely make you smile and to many it will seem a somewhat bizarre publicity stunt but, once again, Japan must be given its merits.
The advertising creators of this campaign explained that the initiative was born in response to the disturbing results that emerged from various scientific studies that reveal the presence on the 80% smartphone of the most common human bacteria, a percentage even higher, by as much as 5 times, than that detected by a toilet seat.
In short, the smartphone as well as being the most used device in the world, is also the most "dirty" device, a receptacle for microbes and bacteria.
What the creators of this advertising campaign are hoping for is that frequent screen cleaning of germs becomes a good habit.
But why were these mini rolls placed right in the toilet cubicles?
The statistics showed that smartphones are touched, on average, about 150 times during the day, even in the most intimate moments, such as while sitting on the toilet in the bathroom, to text, make calls or play.
In these situations, cleaning the display of your device would be good practice.
After all, what is the point of trying to open the doors of public toilets by pressing your elbow on the handle if you then pick up your smartphone without any hesitation ?!
This technological and educational reinterpretation of toilet paper seems to have been liked and appreciated by many tourists in Japan.
Whether this operation will cross the borders of Japan we do not know yet, what is certain is that it is enjoying strong international visibility and that some other company will probably use this extravagant idea as a means of advertising.
