Ricoh is out with new apps for a technology called Clickable Paper. In a nutshell, it does away with the dreaded QR code by embedding hotspots directly into printed materials that are recognizable by an app.

Each hotspot can point to multiple links rather than just one as it is with QR codes. And since there is no ugly QR code gumming up the works, designers will love it. Of course, people will need some sort of indication that these hotspots actually exist on the paper in the first place.

The technology, out for a couple of years, is powered by Ricoh Visual Search, an image recognition solution that “establishes the relationship between information on printed paper with digital information and services on the Internet.”

What does this mean for marketers and publishers? It means print publishers may be given a stay of execution. It means marketers can offer a far more rich experience. It means print and online can literally be married. And, yes, we completely understand this could go the way of the Cue Cat but the technology does seem promising, not to mention user (and creator) friendly. Via.

This week, Colorado restaurant chain Hapa Sushi in Boulder is celebrating the state’s legalization of marijuana with a “weedy” print and in-restaurant ad campaign, Happy Legalization, created by TDA_Boulder.

The campaign consists of three ads, running in Colorado weeklies and monthlies. One of the ads, Pairing Menu, doubles as a hand-out menu. Another, Effective January, doubles as a table tent and as an in-restaurant poster.

The Pairing Menu ad, which is grouped not by reds and whites and roses but by Indicas, Sativas and Blends, suggests appropriate Hapa dishes for various varieties of pot. Spicy, Hawaiian style Pakalolo Shrimp, for example, is said to be an ideal accompaniment to a Pakistani Kush Indica.

The Ergonomically Designed ad touts the chain’s pot-friendly paranoia-reducing ambience.

And the Effective January 1 ad describes the kind of dinner conversation that will now be deemed suitable to the venue. One ad begins “How cool their pets are and that fish would make cool pets but you would have to live in the ocean to hang out with them and this weed is really good and do you think pets like us as much as…”