It's subtle, but Popular Science sells its cover

It's called "augmented reality". The July issue of Popular Science has a cover sponsored by General Electric which is so subtle that the only way the G.E.-branded affilliation is known to the reader is if they hold the cover up to a webcam.

According to a story in the New York Times, showing it the cover signals the computer to display a sponsored site with Flash-based 3-D images of the windmills on the cover. The blades of the windmills can be moved by the reader blowing into the computer microphone.

Augmented reality is a G.E. technology and combines a real image with a virtual one -- it is already capturing marketers' imaginations, with a beef jerky company allowing customers to interract with its sasquatch mascot, or a pizza company allowing one of its boxes to be held up to a webcam and turned into a virtual car. According to the story in the Times, G.E. has been running an augmented reality site since its Super Bowl commercial that promoted its smart grid technology.

No matter how clever, or how subtle, the Popular Science cover is an incremental step in turning magazine covers into advertising commodities, as has been done with greater frequency lately, using as an excuse the parlous advertising market.

While Popular Science did not directly charge GE for being on the cover, and in fact did not even use a picture of GE wind turbines, it was only because the cover illustration was well on its way to completion when the idea of augmented reality was introduced. And the magazine did ask G.E. to buy three ad pages in the issue,which would probably go for $25,000 to $30,000 at a discounted rate.

“The publication signaled an interest: ‘Hey, we’d like to use your technology, and by the way, we’re doing a cover story on energy,’ and that’s where light bulbs went on,” Jennifer Walsh, global director of digital media at G.E. said. “What a great issue to be an advertiser in.” As for the G.E.-sponsored site, she said, “For me, it’s like ‘Oh cool, free publicity.’ ”

(By the way, even if you don't have a copy of PS, you can go to www.popsci.com/imagination beginning Tuesday to print out a copy of the cover and use the program.)

Related posts:

• Is Esquire leading the way down the slippery slope?
• Ad encroachment on magazine covers comes in many different forms
• OMG!! Maclean's!! What happened to your cover?
• ESPN magazine takes "flapvertising" another step
• Ads creep onto magazine covers