Smile, you're on Castrol camera. Billboard dispenses oil advice tailored to you.

Approx 200,000 drivers will be advised on the best oil for their car while this Castrol Billboard is up in Vauxhall, London. If you can't drive by, any UK:er can text OIL 83080 and their registration number to get advice on the oil they should be using.

The tech behind this is reminiscent of Big Brother/Minority Report - the cameras before the billboard flash the car, checks the license plate and make, then the billboard will respond with the right oil for that car as it arrives further down the block (according to clearchannel it only takes two second so this will presumably even work for speeders). The Castrol billboard is actually helpful to drivers - or so Ogilvy Advertising and Castrol want you feel -or as Quentin Willson says: (after the jump)

“I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to use the right oil for your car, and I love the idea of reaching motorists whilst they are actually driving their cars. Nearly half* of Britain’s drivers are currently driving around with the wrong grade or specification of oil in their car but by using the right oil it can help to protect the health of the engine and may also save on maintenance costs. This new initiative means that for once drivers may actually be pleased about being caught on camera.”

Castrol - "Oilcam" demo at Vauxhall / Quentin Willson - (2009) 2:48 (UK)

Not everyone is cheering though, the inquirer calls the new ad-effort "drive-by-badgering" and "privacy-tickling arrangement with the DVLA" since ClearChannel, Castrol and Ogilvy managed to get access to the DVLA database for advertising.

Unexiting video will be here shortly. It would have been posted yesterday but PR people keep forgetting that adland kinds asks you to not send us a youtube links and we waste a lot of time mailing to ask for the actual media instead. Then we get cranky and post something sarcastic about your great new ad, like calling it Big-Brotherish. Funny how that works.