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Annoying to the Max(ine)
Some ATM concepts just don't pan out -- even if they are one of a kind. Take "Maxine" (please). Maxine was an ATM unveiled in 1996 at Seattle's Key Sports Arena in a part of the stadium that included a KeyBank branch and video games for customers to play. "The whole venue this was set in was very high-tech," said Mona Burns, franchise manager for KeyBank in Seattle. The ATM was painted red and had a base that made it look almost like a video game, complete with neon lights. Maxine's look complemented her environment, and she completed transactions as well as any other ATM, but the main feature was the video screen above the unit that displayed Maxine's face. And out of that face came the voice. "She was kind of a female Max Headroom," Burns said, referring to the tiresome animated Coca-Cola spokesman and TV "star" of the 1980s played by actor Matt Frewer. "She was very obnoxious. She talked about Bill Gates and lattes, that kind of thing. She had this little skit or routine she went through that automatically replayed itself," Burns said. "It replayed often enough that we all got sick of her." Customers got sick of her, too, and, like a Shakespearean heroine, Maxine's life was cut tragically short -- KeyBank pulled her plug after only a few months. Burns admits it probably wasn't the best idea ever hatched. "It was just kind of a novelty to draw attention, and it did," she said. Maxine's specialty was referring to local culture, thus explaining the Bill Gates jokes and her obsession with lattes (she was deployed during the rise of Starbucks). While the humor was there, the voice just rubbed those around her the wrong way. "She had kind of an accent that was a little bit obnoxious, and it kind of got a little old," Burns said. When a reporter asked to speak with the people responsible for creating Maxine, Burns said they "are no longer with our bank." She promised that Maxine had nothing to do with their departure. Asked if she would provide a photograph for publication, Burns admitted she has a few photos left but would rather not share them with the world. "I think we'd better just let her lie," she said.
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