Now, Get Some O.J. With Your Gas

The next time you fill it up with unleaded, there might be more to watch than the numbers rolling by.

Shell Oil Co. has installed video monitors on self-service gasoline pumps at a handful of stations nationwide. Most advertise products available just a few steps away, in the Shell convenience store. But a few outlets have already changed the hookup to commercial television, and now the O.J. Simpson trial can be viewed even under a gas station canopy.

Andrea Kleopa, owner of a Shell station just outside Miami, quickly shelved the laser disc of commercials Shell gave her in favor of a satellite dish because her customers “don’t want to be bombarded with advertisements.” The first week her station had the screens, customers could catch snippets of the Super Bowl.

“As a joke, some of them said they wanted to see a satellite dish here. So I got one, put on CNN, a travel channel and cartoons, and customers love it,” Kleopa said.

“It’s fun, and it gives customers something to do when they’re standing out there. Getting gas used to be big chore for them,” she said, adding that it is too soon to say what financial impact the video has had on her business.