New Pepsi Vending Machine Lets You "Text" a Soda to Friends, Strangers

Texting and tweeting are everywhere. You can text vote on your favorite show, tweet a celebrity... heck, you can even get fired via text like Charlie Sheen did from Two and a Half Men. But you could never send a friend an icy-cold beverage -- until now. PepsiCo Pepsi's new...

By Laine Doss

May 10, 2011

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Texting and tweeting are everywhere. You can text vote on your favorite show, tweet a celebrity... heck, you can even get fired via text like Charlie Sheen did from Two and a Half Men. But you could never send a friend an icy-cold beverage -- until now.

PepsiCo

Pepsi's new social vending machine lets you perform a "random act of refreshment".

PepsiCo recently announced its new, interactive, social vending machine. The machine, which has a touch-screen LCD display, will allow you to get nutritional information on Pepsi products, buy a soda, or send a Pepsi (complete with personalized video message that you can record on the spot) to a friend.

Your friend receives a text or email with a special code along with your message, redeemable for a Pepsi at any of the special vending machines.

You can also perform a "Random Act of Refreshment," which allows you to buy a Pepsi at random for a stranger.

So far, the machine is a prototype, but we see long lines for these little monsters at college campuses, movie theaters, and malls. Watch the Pepsi Social Vending Machine in action, after the jump.

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Laine Doss is the food and spirits editor for Miami New Times, covering the restaurant and bar scene in South Florida. She has been featured on Cooking Channel’s Eat Street and Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race. Doss won an Alternative Weekly award for her feature on what it’s like to wait tables. In a previous life, she appeared off-Broadway and shook many a cocktail as a bartender at venues in South Florida and New York City. When she’s not writing, you can find Doss running some marathon then celebrating at the nearest watering hole.

Contact: Laine Doss

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