We’re not sure whether this is desperation or inspiration, but the marketing peeps from the mighty Mars corporation have come up with a jolly wheeze of putting Internet connected vending machines into universities as part of their nationwide recruitment campaign. Wow, we’ve heard of the Milk Round, but this is something else.

The Mars Tweet Shop (geddit?) is a vending machine with a difference. Instead of putting in money, the student tweets a message and code number to @marstweetshop, and for their trouble they’ll receive either a recruitment pack of info or a box full of Mars candy goodies.

So what does this mean? Can we expect to see army recruiting machines appear on campus in future which dispense camouflage caps, or maybe Citicorp machines dispensing Porsche car keys? The mind boggles. For now though, we’re going to sit back and wait for the inevitable hacks that will happen once the computer science departments get wind of this puppy. Pass the popcorn.