Esquire was the first to improve magazines with their limited edition issue featuring an e-ink cover, which I missed out on, but it looks like Entertainment Weekly is one-upping them, and then some, with a CBS & Pepsi sponsored video ad that will appear in their September 18 issue. Now there’s no way the insert will be as thin as a magazine page, given the electronics and batteries required to run even a tiny LCD screen, but it looks like the player will allow readers/viewers to use a set of 5 buttons to choose what content they’d like to see.

When Entertainment Weekly readers open the magazine to the ad pages, they will see a small screen flicker on and start to load a video. A brief segment featuring actors from “The Big Bang Theory” will explain how to use the player, while talking about features from Entertainment Weekly and the different video selections a reader can choose. By pressing one of five different buttons, readers can watch a video montage from “How I Met Your Mother,” a montage from “Two and a Half Men,” a humorous ad for Pepsi Max, a sneak preview of “Accidentally on Purpose” or a preview of new CBS dramas “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “The Good Wife” and “Three Rivers.”

Unfortunately the enhanced magazines will only be sent to EW subscribers in Los Angeles and New York, which means I will miss out yet again, but I’m sure outrageously overpriced copies will pop-up on eBay as soon as the issue is released.

Thanks Meg!

[ Advertising Age - CBS, Pepsi Create Video Ad to Run in Print ]