Volkswagen Presents Talking Newspaper Ad

When we first came across this, our imagination went wild. We could imagine a world where a photograph would interact with us, a world where the columns in the newspaper would read themselves, in a soft, feminine voice and, why not, a world where we could write something on a smart piece of paper and then email it without touching a PC.

All of the above were stirred by the pompous headlines in the international (and mostly Indian) media, "Volkswagen invents talking newspaper", they all concluded in a more or less similar fashion.

The story behind the headlines is this: Volkswagen is promoting the Vento model in The Times of India newspaper by giving the readers more than a visual ad. The commercial, inserted on the last page of the newspaper, is accompanied by a voice which spells out what the letters portray.

Now, there's no magic behind the ad. We, for one, are not even remotely impressed with it. Cool, sure, a nice idea, definitely, but come on, a talking newspaper?!

No, just a small device which holds captive a recording of the ad. A device which Volkswagen didn't even bother to hide very good. Truth be told, it was not way it could have hidden the iPod-sized device.

The recording is activated once readers unfold the paper by using a chip embedded in the pages of the newspaper. According to Digital Inspiration, the audio chip is designed to play on a continuous loop until the paper is closed.

So, again, we're sure we all agree. Great idea? Yes. Has it been done before (by anybody)? No idea. A talking newspaper? NO.