To See More Ads, Use the Magic Pen

The Standard has a scary Story on yet another plan to cram more ads into your life.

\”\”We don\’t think it\’s the Holy Grail,\” says Wired publisher Drew Shutte . \”But we think it\’s the precursor to something larger.\”
Watermarks, bar codes and other hieroglyphics that essentially link printed pages to Web pages will start appearing in dozens of magazines within the next few months. \”

The Standard has a scary Story on yet another plan to cram more ads into your life.

\”\”We don\’t think it\’s the Holy Grail,\” says Wired publisher Drew Shutte . \”But we think it\’s the precursor to something larger.\”
Watermarks, bar codes and other hieroglyphics that essentially link printed pages to Web pages will start appearing in dozens of magazines within the next few months. \”

Although some editors have expressed interest in the new technology as a way to provide additional information on a given article, the real market for the codes is advertisers. Every print ad, the theory goes, becomes a potential online sale.

\”We are looking to deliver communication that goes beyond the passive delivery of advertising,\” says Curt Jakesen, director of communications at J. Walter Thompson, an agency with clients like Ford who are testing the new digital marks. \”We want to help clients engage customers and give them the opportunity to interact.\”