Media companies have it easy when it comes to advertising in the post-advertising age. They already have packaged stories and are able to use them well in service of their brands. Eidos Interactive's Tomb Raider series is a property with a highly developed story, including two cinematic, live action releases starring Angelina Jolie.

For the release of the latest iteration of the game, Eidos has partnered with Eyeblaster and IGN to buy several full site takeovers on relevant media properties, like IGN.com. The site is presented as usual but with a Tomb Raider poster dominating the background. Interactive banners relate to each other and implore the audience to, essentially, pull their finger. Once a user does that, the site falls apart (like this Wario ad) and the audience is treated to a Tomb Raider trailer.

If this weren't a niche product with a niche audience working with a niche media brand, I'd find this sort of intrusive advertising very annoying. But people go to places like IGN.com to get the latest news on games, gaming, etc. They should be delighted by this bit of interactivity and I'm sure are interested in seeing the trailer. Rather than interrupt the content on IGN.com, the ad campaign adds to it. In the post-advertising age, brands will become media companies through their storytelling campaigns. Media companies themselves are in a great position to help brands do this through partnerships like this one.

I never thought I'd praise a company that makes its scratch on bombarding people with messages and is appropriately named (Eyeblaster), but here we are. In the post-advertising age, sometimes the going gets weird (that's when the weird turn pro). Kudos, Eyeblaster.