The Media Are the Message

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase "The medium is the message" in the 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. In this age of personal choices, how consumers relate to media is changing everyday. More and more, consumers are cognizant that their choices have meaning or consequences.

The environmental scare may seem overblown to some, but since man's effect on our Earth is not precisely calculable, maybe we should err on the side of caution. Scientists report of a Great Pacific Garbage Patch suspended in the vortex of currents known as the North Pacific Gyre. There, manmade plastics have broken down into small plankton-sized particles that swirl in the ocean over an area bigger than Texas, and calculations of the mass of material there boggle the mind.

The high profile of music and movies make the entertainment industry an ideal candidate to take a leading role in environmentally responsible packaging. As you will learn in our cover story, the tide appears to be shifting for CD and DVD packaging.

If there ever was a presidential candidate packaged well as a brand, it would be Senator Barack Obama. Voters and citizens have emotional affinities to the name even when they can 't explain his stances on issues or proposed policies. The media have noticed, and five panelists discuss why Obama 's campaign has succeeded in staying on message with design.

Other timely articles in this issue include tips on staying ahead of licensing projects (Designer's Corner), digging deep for consumer insights (Research), and creating inventive energy drink packaging (The Front Panel). Please continue to share what packaging insights you discover, and we'll share them with our readers either here or in our eSolutions semimonthly newsletter.

Ron Romanik
Editor-in-Chief
rromanik@lyonsmediainc.com