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Watch the hypnotic new ads that are about to take over Facebook

By
Christina Austin
Christina Austin
and
Victor Luckerson
Victor Luckerson
By
Christina Austin
Christina Austin
and
Victor Luckerson
Victor Luckerson
February 12, 2015, 9:29 AM ET
Courtesy of Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck

This post is in partnership with Time. The article below was originally published at Time.com.

With auto-play videos now being a firmly established part of the Facebook (FB) News Feed, the social network is reportedly planning to try upping the quality of the ads displayed there. A new ad format called a cinemagraph will reportedly start appearing in the News Feed soon, according to Adweek.

The ads are moving GIFs, but the motion is restrained to just a few parts of the image. An ad for wine might show a large banquet table with just a single glass of wine swirling, for instance. Or an ad for a newspaper might show a reader slowly stirring his coffee while everything else around it is static. An agency that’s been experimenting heavily with cinemagraphs, Ann Street Studio, features several of the ads on their website.

The ads have a dreamy, hypnotic quality that makes them stand out amongst the multimedia assault most users experience as they surf the Web. Most likely, these types of ads would be played on loop, a functionality that Facebook just added to Instagram last week. The unique format might convince users to stop scrolling and actually take an ad in for several moments, which would be good news for both marketers and Facebook.

Ann Street Studio GIF
Courtesy of Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck
Ann Street Studio GIF
Courtesy of Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck
Ann Street Studio GIF
Courtesy of Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck
Ann Street Studio GIF
Courtesy of Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck
Ann Street Studio GIF
Courtesy of Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck
Ann Street Studio GIF
Courtesy of Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck
About the Authors
By Christina Austin
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By Victor Luckerson
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