The yolks on us.

A bad play on words, I know, but that's what we can expect from CBS--in our refrigerators--come this fall. The NY Times reports that advertisements for CBS's fall lineup will be appearing on over 35 million eggs. Done by a company called EggFusion, the advertisements are laser etched onto the eggshells at a depth of 50 to 90 micrometers--deep enough to be clearly legible, but at only 5% of the shell's thickness, not deep enough to damage its structural integrity.

There is likely to be some disgust generated by this announcement. For those of us who worry about the degree to which we are bombarded by media, these advertisements will seem incredibly intrusive. It's nice to think that, at least inside our homes, if we choose to turn off the TV, the radio, et cetera, we can insulate ourselves. Not anymore. On a more basic level, there might also be something of an ick factor. Who wants someone monkeying around with their food? Especially eggs! Those little white ovals are the very picture of sanitary. Of course, it is the clean, white perfection of the things that makes the move so brilliant--what could possibly provide a better canvas for a message? Finally, it escapes me right now as to how to tackle the symbolic value of this move (the egg!), but I'm sure there will be at least one cultural theorist much smarter than I am who will pick up that particular thread.