iPhones and other gadgets get a charge from bus shelter ads

The next time you're waiting for that bus that is really, really late, there's no need to worry about your iPhone or iPad battery dying. Thanks to a creative ad company and the Vitaminwater brand, bus shelters in several American cities are being equipped with a USB port for charging.

The shelters are currently in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which is sadly the same firm that brought us the Microsoft "I'm a PC" campaign, is using the tag line "Alternative Energy Source" to describe both the Vitaminwater product and the function of the bus shelter plug.

Samsung has had charging kiosks in many airports for several years, so the concept isn't exactly new. But this is the first time that charging has hit the streets, usually the one place that you really need to plug in and charge up. It would be wonderful to see more advertisers providing this type of public service, giving their products and potential customers a plug.