Try it
These QR codes (Quick Response Codes) are on everything now. If you’ve scanned one with your smartphone camera once, you probably haven’t bothered to do it again because it took you to a website that you didn’t really care to see. Oh look the code on my shampoo takes me to the full Johnson & Johnson site that I can’t read on my phone! Hey when I scan this code on the cologne ad in the magazine my phone overheats and resets! Cool!
Advertisers in business offices are constantly doing high-fives every time their Land-O-Lakes website gets a hit from a curious butter code scan. I noticed that politicians are also trying them out on their giant coupon sized junk mailers. Every inquisitive “what’s this thing do” scan could lead to another voter that hates them for tricking them into going to their website.
I’ve ignored these codes because I’ve been fooled more than twice and taken to a useless website. But the codes are actually quite useful, when used by creative people who aren’t trying to sell things to you. Anybody can make a QR code for free and have it point to a website, text, phone number, email, video, contact info, or even a location on a map.
Games
They’ve already done QR games at nerd-cons, where you have to run around and scan the codes and try not to stink too bad. Each code is a certain amount of points. Scan the most points and you’ll be going home with a giant stuffed animal and a fleeting sense of satisfaction.
Scavenger Hunt
Create a scavenger hunt using clues, location tags, phone numbers, etc…
Better yet, propose to your future wife with a QR Code scavenger hunt. A quick Google search doesn’t show that anyone has gone on the Internet and bragged about doing this yet. You could be the first person to do something original. (The first guy to do this gets a punch in the nuts)
Also possible and yet to be done: the extremely elaborate ransom where a kidnapper confirms the money has been dropped in the log when the code gets scanned. (Not recommended!)
Battle Zone Leaflets
If the enemy is carrying their smartphone around and curiously scans the code on a leaflet dropped by the Air-force, they’ll receive detailed instructions on how not to get bombed by an F-18.
Also, now the military knows where you and your phone are at all times and when you go to play Farsi Words with Friends, you’ll share the virus with your allies, creating a distributed network of secret enemy locations.
Spread Viruses
Show off your new QR virus and ruin people’s phones. Drop them off at local businesses as a way to lower productivity.
Public Restrooms
For a good time scan this code. Make a sticker of your phone number QR code and put it in a bathroom stall. If someone is looking for a good time, they’ll scan your code and you’ll be talking in no time!
It’s also good for leaving your phone number at a bar (ladies). Nothing will guarantee a quicker call-back (or raised eyebrow) than slipping one of these in a guy’s pocket. But if he’s playing hard-to-get or if he didn’t like you, it might get posted in the bathroom stall.
Artificially increase your web traffic (like a jerk advertiser)
Scan the code below and share it with your friends. Print this page, cut it out, and tape it to things. Glue this over a politicians’ dumb code, put it on gas pumps, or stick it on milk cartons at the grocery store. Come back again and again.
This Never Happened 