First Video Ad in a Print Magazine

In September, Entertainment Weekly will publish the first video ad -- in its print edition.

The British press is abuzz with this technological breakthrough, but the American press is remarkably blase about it.

We found stories about it on the Websites for the U.K.'s Guardian, Daily Mail, Telegraph, London Times, Irish Times, the BBC, even the kids' version of BBC.

Apparently they're all transfixed by the "Harry Potter" quality of moving images on a printed page, though it's not nearly that impressive.

It works like one of those singing greeting cards -- opening the page activates a superslim computer chip. The screen is about the size of your cellphone display (2" x 1.5").

Each chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video.

The first will contain previews of CBS's 'Two and a Half Men' (pictured), 'The Big Bang Theory,' 'Accidentally on Purpose,' plus other shows from the network's fall lineup. And ads for the new Pepsi Max.

The cost of the video ad hasn't been reported, and it remains to be seen whether it will have a positive effect on sales, as Esquire experienced last year when it employed the novelty of using the Amazon Kindle's e-ink on its cover.

Naturally, our question is: How long before print magazines use video for editorial purposes? You can tell some good stories in 40 minutes!

Here's a sneak preview of the CBS/Pepsi ad supplement in Entertainment Weekly's Sept. 18 Fall Preview edition, containing the video-in-print player: