Animated GIFs in marketing: genius or evil genius?

Let’s call a spade a spade: This is marketing, pure and simple. But a crass “Whassup” ad this certainly ain’t: instead, Burg and Beck capture the creative “process value” behind Dogfish’s product, showing how luscious organic strawberries are hand-loaded into a wooden fruit press, sorghum is hand-poured into the brew kettle, and the first pint is lovingly served. The cinemagraphs are subtle and lovingly crafted — just like (get it?) the beer itself. A marketing match made in heaven.

I noted a while back (sorry, can’t find my own reference) that the sparing use of animated GIFs in marketing emails sometimes made a very big impression when I could see it above the “fold.” This is potentially better: using artfully crafted images that show limited motion to clarify a process. But it’s easy to imagine this going WAY too far, and becoming an overwhelmingly common phenomenon implemented poorly. It’s bound to happen, I suppose, but let’s hope the good examples, like the one shown here, help keep the bad in check.