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An onslaught of hidden ads

An onslaught of hidden ads: "toyo0605.jpg Toyota Motor Corp. has asked at least three major magazine companies to explore product integration - that's product placement to you and me - of its cars into magazine editorial pages. Say hello to another indicator of changing media mores.

There's no sign that Hearst Magazines, Meredith, and Advance Publications, the parent of Condé Nast Publications, are going along with what would be a major breach of the traditional wall between magazine editorial and advertising units.

Still, it's a time, says Deborah Wahl Meyer, vice-president for marketing at Lexus, in which 'ideas can cross between advertising and editorial. It doesn't always need to have the 'advertorial' note on top.' Indeed, when Toyota came calling at each publisher, its execs talked up a favorite marketing coup: this year's multimillion-dollar deal that put its vehicles on reality-TV show The Contender.

Toyota's notions aren't universally welcomed. 'We'll sell our mothers, but this doesn't work,' says a mystified magazine executive who attended one presentation and, fearing a major advertiser's wrath, insisted on anonymity. 'I can't sell you an article. I don't even know how to price it.'

Elsewhere, such concerns faded long ago. For a fee, companies can place brands in songs, plays, movies, books (remember Fay Weldon's The Bulgari Connection?) -- and, of course, television. (BUSINESSWEEK)"

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