AMSTERDAM, May 6 — Could giant musical ashtrays be the way to encourage smokers to stop throwing cigarette butts on the ground?
Dutch/Turkish design studio Ioglo has invented “Fumo”, an interactive “smoke pole” which plays a tune accompanied by flashing lights each time it receives a cigarette butt.
Designed to represent a giant cigarette butt, Fumo plays an energetic musical clip for 5-10 seconds every time a butt is stubbed out and tossed into its bin, while 56 LEDs perform a lively choreography to the music. The tune varies each time as the smoke pole contains over 50 sound samples, ranging from a joyous gospel choir performance to a clip of Homer Simpson’s famous “D’oh!”
The hand-crafted invention can be updated or made to fit various colour, size and audio specifications. Although the prototype version of the pole has been created for public spaces, it could be adapted for different situations.
The design team was inspired to create Fumo to readdress the balance between the focus put on standard littering and that put on cigarette butt littering, which seems to be much more commonplace.
“This smoke pole is an example of combining idealism with a touch of fun to change people’s behaviour for the better,” explains Ioglo. — AFP-Relaxnews
