Things Unnecessary

A few days back I received an advance copy of a new glossy consumer electronics magazine, ce Lifestyles or, as Caroline called it, Things Unnecessary Magazine. Much of the advertising is cleverly set in the magazine’s own style, making it somehow covert and blatant at the same time. I think the least expensive item advertised was a $69 Philips DVP642 DVD player, but much of the content is geared toward widescreen TVs in the very high 4 figures and lots of digital cameras. There is a nice article on the origin of stereo headphones (developed in 1958 by John Koss) but I’m not sure the target audience for the magazine is going to care.