Nothing New Under the Sun

Although Timothy Noah has already claimed on Slate that Time Magazine ripped him (or his sister) off when using the "mirror gimmick" for their cover story pronouncing "You" Person of the Year, I'm going to beg to differ. I believe that Time ripped Aquent off. [FULL DISCLOSURE ALERT - I WORK FOR AQUENT!]

You see, back in 1999, we sent out a direct mail piece printed on Chromolux silver metallic card stock that said, "Is this your design and production department?" Get it? Here it is in all its mirrory glory:

Aquent's mirror card

Now, I know that Mr. Noah claims he used mirror-enhanced posters in his run for president of the 6th grade back in 1969, but I submit to you, which is more likely: that an art director at Time attended elementary school with Mr. Noah, or that they saw this eye-catching mailer which we sent out to creative professionals all across the free world?

"You" decide.


On an semi-related note: I was puzzled by the copy in the ad for Chrysler Sebring that greeted me when I went to check out the "Person of the Year" article on-line. It read: "You might not be Time Person of the Year." What are they talking about? "You" most certainly is!

4 Comments

I can help prove your point by dusting off the pile of those direct mail pieces I have in our storage room. Boy, do we need to clean.

It would be an even bigger help if you could dust off the mailing list that proves how we sent this card to Time!

That mirror card is brilliant, Matt! You must have an amazing creative director!

He is amazing, Mark! You should ask him about the "fuzzy card."

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