Remember Mondex ads on city buses?
I was going through the dusty attic down at the video shop yesterday and I found this old tape from the early 90’s.
According to Wikipedia “Mondex is a smart card electronic cash system which was originally developed by National Westminster Bank in the United Kingdom and subsequently sold to MasterCard International. Mondex launched in a number of markets during the 1990s, expanding from an original trial in Swindon, UK to Hong Kong, Guelph, and New York.“
The idea being that Mondex had a chip that you could use to download money from your bank account onto. You then would swipe the card on a Guelph Transit bus or swipe a parking metre Downtown (yes kids, there was once parking metres Downtown).
The idea didn’t fly as most people failed to see the advantage of Mondex over using debit cards (which were relatively new at the time).
Opponents of Mondex saw this as an invasion of privacy. The big banks could use the smart card as an opportunity to gather intelligence on citizens and consumers they said.
The concept of the smart chip did survive and today most debit and credit cards employ the chip technology.
What about the loss of privacy and our consumer shopping habits. Well that went out the window with the proliferation of social media, GPS and personal devices.
Off to update my Facebook profile. ian
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLOZAk4mKTk]
PS Look at the 6 minute mark or so. Apparently we had Alderpersons back then. Whatever they are.
Sidebar#1. Mondex used cartoon images in it’s advertising because it helped simplify what was a complex technological product in 1990.
Sidebar#2. Guelph is regularly chosen to test new products in the marketplace. This is because of it’s moderate size, relative geographical isolation, high education level and above average incomes.
Sidebar#3. The debit card had immediate and deep market acceptance in Guelph. This is why it was chose to test Mondex.