American television company CBS plans to start using a new place to advertise its fall television lineup: its customers' breakfast.
The network has announced that it will place laser imprints of its logo, as well as logos for some of its shows, on the shells of 35 million eggs in September and October. CBS's copywriters are referring to the effort as “egg-vertising.”
The CBS ads are the first to use imprinting technology developed by a company called EggFusion, based in Deerfield, Illinois. Bradley Parker, who started the company, wanted to reassure shoppers that egg factories were not placing old eggs in new boxes, so he developed a laser technique to put the expiration date directly on an egg.
In order to get egg companies and sellers to use the new technology, he came up with the idea of using it to create advertising space.
“It's unlike any other ad medium in the world, because you are looking at the medium while you are using it,” he says.
And everyone gets part of the profits. Right now, EggFusion is selling the ads on its own, but plans to enlist the help of advertising agencies, company executives said.
As EggFusion sees it, consumers look at a single egg shell at least a few times: when they open a carton in the store to see if any eggs are cracked, if they move them from the carton to the refrigerator, and when they crack them open.
The eggs also carry a code that can be checked on a Web site, www.myfreshegg.com, to find out where the egg is from, the date it left the factory and the names of the companies that it has passed through.
(NY Times News Service)
美國電視網CBS打算開闢新天地來刊登秋季節目表的廣告︰觀眾的早餐。
CBS宣布將會於九月和十月，在三千五百萬顆蛋殼上印上CBS的雷射標誌，還有部分節目的標誌。CBS的廣告文編稱這一切努力為「蛋廣告」。
1. imprint n.
壓印 (ya1 yin4)
例: When Ida sat up in bed, her head left an imprint on the pillow.
(艾達從床上坐起身時，枕頭上留了一個頭印。)
2. reassure v.t.
使安心 (shi3 an1 xin1)
例: When I was living out of the country, I had to call my mom every week to reassure her that I was doing OK.
(我住在國外時，必須每週打電話給母親，讓她放心我一切平安。)
3. expiration n.
期限 (qi2 xian4)
例: Usually, the date of expiration is printed on a carton of milk.
(有效日期通常會標示在牛奶盒上。)
4. enlist v.i. /v.t.
獲得……的幫助 (huo4 de2 ……de5 bang1 zhu4)
例: We enlisted Tara's boyfriend to help plan her birthday party.
(我們請泰拉的男友幫我們籌劃她的生日派對。)
CBS的廣告是第一個使用位於伊利諾州德爾非的EggFusion 公司所研發的壓印科技。創辦EggFusion的布萊德利．帕克希望讓消費者對於製蛋工廠不會將舊蛋裝入新盒感到放心，所以研發出直接將有效日期打在蛋上的雷射科技。
為了能讓蛋商與賣家使用新科技，他興起了運用這項科技來開闢新廣告空間的點子。
他說︰「這不像世界上其他廣告媒界，因為你使用它時就在觀看它。」
每個人都可從中得到好處。EggFusion 主管說，公司目前是自己找廣告買主，但計畫獲得廣告公司的援助。
如EggFusion看到的，消費者至少會觀看蛋殼幾次︰在商店打開紙盒查看雞蛋是否有裂痕、將雞蛋從紙盒移到冰箱，還有打蛋時。
這些蛋也標示了代碼，在www.myfreshegg.com網站輸入代碼，就可以查到這些蛋來自何方、出廠日期，與產銷中間商的名稱。
（紐約時報/翻譯︰賴美君）
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