Time Inc. corporate orders simultaneous editorial for 3-D movie

Five Time Inc. magazines -- Time, Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly-- are running simultaneous, corporate-ordered editorial on 3-D technology and, in return, are getting a big advertising payday from Macdonald's, according to a story in AdAge. (For one of the magazines, Fortune, this is the first time the hamburger chain has advertised.)

All the magazines will include 3-D glasses. And they'll all be supported by ads from McDonald's, a marketing partner for DreamWorks Animation's upcoming "Monsters vs. Aliens"; from Real D, a technology company devoted to 3-D; and from HP and Intel, partly because DreamWorks uses HP computers.

The campaign came about because Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, called John Huey, the editor in chief of Time Inc. to pitch the subject, Mr. Huey said. "I said, 'What magazine are you pitching for anyway?' He said 'All of them.'"

What would have happened if Fortune, for example, came back with an article arguing that 3-D was a doomed fad, not the future of cinema at all? That problem didn't arise, said John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc. "It isn't something I had to deal with."

What a surprise.