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Although Animal Farm is one of my favorite novels, George Orwell really annoyed me with 1984. Well, just kidding, I really liked that book too. I was just bitter that he picked my birth year to predict a totalitarian world where privacy and civil rights didn’t exist anywhere. I mean, I thought 1984 was great year for a baby. Anyway, he might have been onto something, just a decade or two too early.

Though mainly non-partisan when it comes to politics, it was hard not to see the door to our liberties close slightly with the Patriot Act of 2001. A statue that allowed the government to selectively access telephone, email, medical and financial records to protect our “freedom”, it made everyone wonder … is anything private anymore? Well, not really. And with the crazy technological boom of the past decade, it’s made the line between what is private and what is public not only blurry, but pretty much invisible.

Insert the social media craze. Whether searching for a job, investigating a crime, or just trying to spread a plethora of fast knowledge, outlets such as Facebook and Twitter have become catalysts for studying human behavior and examining an individual’s thoughts. Now some of these thoughts are being filed into public record … and studied.
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Image by AdAge

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If you’re a magazine reader, get ready to see something different. On September 18th, CBS and Pepsi will launch their newest marketing experiment: video advertisements in a print magazine.

That’s right. Selected Entertainment Weekly subscribers in NYC and LA will receive magazine copies embedded with wafer-thin screens running clips of CBS’s upcoming shows. Additionally, there will be a screen with an ad for Pepsi’s new drink, Pepsi Max.

According to experts, a roughly two-inch screen starts playing automatically as the page flips open. A speaker is embedded below it. Additionally, viewers have the option to start or stop the video by pressing on the screen (an essential feature considering the runtime can be up to 40 hours). The new technology was developed by LA based company, Americhip, and is considered similar to that used by Amazon’s Kindle.

The CBS Corp., PepsiCo, and Entertainment Weekly are touting the video ads as the first ever to appear in a print magazine. CBS would not disclose pricing information for the inserts or the screens, however, experts estimate the cost to be somewhere between $8-15 per copy.

While CBS and Pepsi certainly have the first mover’s advantage on this one, I’m still not convinced that the over a million dollar investment will be worth it. What do you guys think?

By Kelley Blakewood

Advertising Age recently ranked Addison Whitney as the #8 U.S. Branding and Identity Agency as part of their 65th Annual Agency Report. InVentiv Communications was also recognized, ranking #19 on the list of the World’s Top 50 Agency Companies. GSW, Palio and Ignite were among the other InVentiv agencies named in the report.

Congratulations to Addison Whitney and all of the InVentiv Communications agencies for an outstanding achievement!

To see the report, visit the Advertising Age Datacenter .

Contributed by Laine Beyerl

Joseph DeSetto, author of Flash MX. Rich Media for the Web was recently in Charlotte interviewing designers for his new book: The Business of Design, due out today.

The Business of Design will cover topics including legal and ethical issues, assets such as fonts and photography, and pricing and bidding on new jobs. DeSetto interviewed designers of various levels to glean opinions, advice, and words of wisdom. A great big kudos to Addison Whitney’s very own Visual Branding Department for being interviewed for this publication, specifically for inclusion as a supplemental DVD that will be packaged with the book.

Congrats to the Visual Branding team for their hard work which has earn them well-deserved recognition within the industry, and best wishes to DeSetto for this new venture. We’ll definitely have a copy or two on our shelves!