Above the slogan “People who don’t have time make time to read the Wall Street Journal” is will.i.am: “producer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and Wall Street Journal reader,” among many other titles, accomplishments and accolades. From the photo, some of us can spot that he’s a U87 fan. And perhaps far more philosophically, he’s also a Slate Raven MTX user.
Here, will.i.am is the back cover of a 4-page WSJ.com-focused house ad insert in Tuesday’s print edition, bookending Tory Burch’s cover (I had to wiki her:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory_Burch). It’s rather impressive: pro audio’s bleeding-edge mix platform with a full-page position in the Journal’s section A.
Behind Tory—a fashion designer—is a color-burst wall with shelves of ideas, swatches, clippings and photos. Behind our guy is a gray background, two Raven flat screens, a mic and monitors. Will.i.am’s even wearing gray. Next to Tory, it’s all rather stark in comparison. Yet what we can’t really see—and what will.i.am certainly can—is the color-burst wall of plug-ins, intriguing graphics and realistic-sized emulations of classic gear on his MTX screens. No physical knobs, no faders, and no racks are in the photo.
This ad is more than celebrity-centric marketing. It means something, but what?
Meanwhile, please read my report on touchscreen technology in the March 2015 issue of Pro Sound News and share your thoughts on the current touchscreen revolution in pro audio.
