More Corporations Using Tag And Release Programs To Study American Consumers
According to reports, multinationals such as Kraft, General Electric, Goodyear, and Apple have embraced the technique of tracking down potential customers in their natural habitats of department stores and supermarkets, forcibly tranquilizing them as they shop, and then fitting them with electronic tracking devices that allow marketing departments to keep a detailed record of individuals every movement and purchasing decision.
Representatives from several Fortune 500 companies described to reporters a delicate process in which marketing associates journey to such varied field sites as Marshalls, OfficeMax, and Bed Bath & Beyond, where they lie in wait behind a row of shopping carts or a promotional cardboard cutout. Once a desirable target moves into view, a member of the marketing team reportedly attempts to immobilize it by firing a tranquilizer dart into its neck or haunches before it can panic and skitter off into another aisle. The unconscious consumer is then fitted with a small, subdermal acoustic tag that is synced to the subjects credit cards, allowing marketers to both physically and financially track their quarries.
Its important that we tag them early in the development of their buying habits, Barlow added. Obviously, once they reach 65, they become useless for our purposes and we remove their tags, or just let them chew them off.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/more-corporations-using-tag-and-release-programs-t,36271/