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"   Owe your pen pal a drink? A new vending machine from Pepsi allows users to send free soft drinks to their far-away friends via text message. The new Social Vending System, introduced at the National Automatic Merchandising Association&amp;#039;s One Show in Chicago last week, resembles your standard vending machine, but generous consumers can enter a buddy&amp;#039;s name, cell number, and a personalized message, and voila, miles away the recipient receives a code that can be used to redeem a soda at another Pepsi smart machine. More from Delish: Eat Healthy from the Vending Machine &amp;quot;Our vision is to use innovative technology to empower consumers and create new ways for them to engage with our brands, their social networks and each other at the point of purchase,&amp;quot; Mikel Durham, Chief Innovation Officer at PepsiCo Foodservice, said in a release. The smart machine also allows consumers to record video messages and to practice &amp;quot;Random Acts of Refreshment&amp;quot; by sending free drinks to strangers at any other of Pepsi&amp;#039;s social soda dispensers. The friendly pop machines are just one way that food and beverage companies are experimenting with integrating social media into the point of sale experience. The diet frozen dessert chain Tasti D-Lite is installing TastiPads in all of its new and some of its existing locations. These specially outfitted iPads allow users to look up nutritional information, update their frequent buyer cards, and sign and read a virtual customer guestbook. Last summer Unilever introduced its &amp;quot;Share Happy&amp;quot; ice cream vending machines, which instructed users to &amp;quot;say cheese&amp;quot; in front of the machine&amp;#039;s camera. Smiles big enough to register on the &amp;quot;smile-o-meter&amp;quot; were rewarded with a free ice cream and their pictures were shared on Facebook (with the user&amp;#039;s permission.) Coke also has also launched interactive vending machines. More from Delish: Unusual Vending Machine Foods The social media blog Mashable points out that the new PepsiCo machines are lacking a Twitter or Facebook component. A rep for Pepsi told Mashable that more social media interactivity is planned for phase 2 of the new system&amp;#039;s launch. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38509/new-machine-lets-you-send-a-friend-a-pepsi-via-text-message/>