Vending Machine Offers Cup Of Noodles In Exchange For Instagram Selfie

A new vending machine from Foodbeast will offer you a cup of noodles for the price of a selfie. In an instance of using social media as actual capital, this collaboration between Foodbeast and Nissin Cup Noodles will feed you in exchange for your photo and a specialized hashtag. As Softonic explains, after you take your selfie via the machine, "The #DreamMachine will generate a unique hashtag. Use that hashtag while uploading your selfie to Instagram." Then somehow, this HAL-like apparatus "will check to see if you obeyed its online noodle dispensing protocols, and give you your noodles if you followed correctly."

Softonic notes that the machine was "initially conceived as a joke within Foodbeast," but now is making its way to a few malls in Las Vegas and California. No word on how those individualized hashtags are improving social media traffic so far.

The Dream Machine also contains video games and gift cards, which may make you happier or unhappier than a cup of noodles, depending on how hungry you are. One user found that the new machine may need a slight tweaking, however: