Watch Ads And Drink For Free In Japan

Thirsty Japanese will soon be able to drink coffee or other non-alcoholic beverages at a low price or even for free - as long as they watch a 30-second advertisement on the vending machines.

Vending machine operator Apex will start a service next month to turn its machines into a new medium for advertisers, who will pick up the partial or full cost of drinks.

Apex runs about 35,000 vending machines across Japan that serve drinks in paper cups.

Under the project, the vending machine will play an advertiser's video for around the 30 seconds it takes to pour the drink and dispense a paper cup with an advertisement printed on it.

"We will select the locations of vending machines which would best suit the customers targeted by advertisers", says an Apex company official.

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