TV Zombies Kicked Out of CES

I was making the rounds on the opening day of the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday when I encountered a bizarre sight: a group of young people, some dressed in black, but all with white-and-black death-mask makeup and black boxes on their heads bearing the names of TV vendors (JVC, Philips, Vizio and others), filing silently toward the exit of the show floor.

As I got closer, I realized they were being herded by CES personnel, who basically ignored me when I asked what was going on. "Who are these people?" I said. "Nobody," one of the escorts replied.

I finally got one of the TV zombies to stop long enough to tell me: "We want the producers to take back responsibility," which didn't make a lot of sense at the time.

I did realize that they were being kicked out of the event. Today I finally learned what they were protesting: the failure of consumer electronics companies to take more responsibility for recycling their products.

Here's a Reuters blog post with more info on the protest by a group called Electronics Takeback Coalition. I can't remember seeing anyone kicked out of CES before.