The day after the inauguration I made sure to pick up the New York Times at a nearest Starbucks and check out the coverage. The January 21st issue had a 28-page special inauguration section, filled with 2-page spread photos of the event and articles about everything from Ted Kennedy’s luncheon collapse to the first lady’s inauguration ball dress. The most telling part I found of the issue, however, was the full-page ads playing off the inauguration publicity.

The NYT is a popular platform for corporations to make big announcements with full-page advertising, but we rarely get an opportunity to see so many issues addressed in the same issue. The last example was probably 9/11, and before that, who knows. The Bush administration certainly didn’t have such high approval ratings coming into office after the Florida recount debacle, so I doubt the advertisers were out in as full of force as they were this January 21st.

So it seems appropriate that the Times would serve as a great time capsule for capturing the state of the world’s affairs in a single issue of full-page ads alone. It appears we can learn a little something about everything the recession will bring. Some examples are blatantly direct, others simply hint at the world’s economic and social problems. See the full set of ads after the jump. Read more »

Learning by Watchmen’s example – NBS Nightly News story on Dr. Manhattan.

UPDATE: Slashfilm has posted a new video on the Keene Act.

From AFP – After leaving a closed-door meeting with President Obama on Tuesday, some Republican Congress members posted their reactions in real time via Twitter.

“Good salesman, bad product,” said Representative Jeff Flake on his feed.  He’s even using hash marks to contribute to categories like #pork and, well, himself, at #flake.

“Closing comment from Pres. Obama: He’d rather be a one-termer who addressed real issues than a two-termer who didn’t. That went over well,” said Representative Bob Inglis.  Inglis staff claim he does all of his own tweets.

There are quite a few prominent Congress members on Twitter, including Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich.  Oddly, John McCain has kept his posts private.  You can see a full list of those actively Tweeting on TweetCongress.org.

CNN, NPR, the Obama campaign, now members of Congress are all active Twitter users.  It’s right on the edge of mainstream.

Full AFP article here, via Google News.

SNL jumps on the pseudo-controversial Whopper Virgins campaign by Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

Heard a lot of production troubles surrounded this title, but it’s finally got a due date. Enjoy the trailer.