Founded as Cross Computer Consulting on January 1, 1999, incorporated as Coptix Inc. on January 1, 2002, and re-branded as Medium on April 9, 2009, Medium is a Chattanooga

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...

, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 based graphic design

Graphic design

Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...

, web design

Web design

Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...

, and web development

Web development

Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet or an intranet . This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development...

 company with clients such as Rock/Creek

Rock/Creek

Rock/Creek is a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based sporting goods retailer of clothing and gear for rock climbing, paddling, trail running, hiking, camping and travel. Founded as Rock/Creek Outfitters and Canoeist Headquarters in 1987 when Dawson Wheeler and Marvin Webb purchased Canoeist Headquarters,...

, Chattem

Chattem

Chattem is a Chattanooga, Tennessee, producer and marketer of over-the-counter healthcare products, toiletries, dietary supplements, topical analgesics, and medicated skin care products...

, redbox

Redbox

Redbox is an American company that specializes in the rental of DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and video games via automated retail kiosks. As of the end of June 2011, Redbox had over 33,000 kiosks in over 27,800 locations....

, Olan Mills, Hardees, PGi

PGi

PGi, or Premiere Global Services, Inc., is a multinational corporation and global provider of conferencing and collaboration solutions. Its products include audio conferencing, web conferencing, videoconferencing and virtual meeting solutions...

, Alberto-Culver

Alberto-Culver

Alberto-Culver is an American corporation with international sales whose principal business is manufacturing hair and skin beauty care products under such brands as Alberto VO5, Andrew Collinge, St. Ives , TRESemmé, FDS, Consort, and Nexxus. It is a manufacturer in the multicultural beauty care...

, and Yanmar

Yanmar

is a Japanese diesel engine manufacturer with more than 90 years of history. The engines are used in a wide range of applications, including seagoing vessels, construction equipment, agricultural equipment and generator sets.-Company description:...

. Medium is a member of the AIGA

American Institute of Graphic Arts

AIGA is an American professional organization for design. Organized in 1914, AIGA currently has more than 22,000 members throughout 66 chapters and more than 200 student groups nationwide...

 & the American Advertising Federation

American Advertising Federation

The American Advertising Federation , headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest national advertising trade association, representing 50,000 professionals in the advertising industry. The AAF has a national network of 200 ad clubs located in ad communities across the United States...

.

Bill Cahan Spoofs

Medium gained attention throughout the design community when in January 2007 it produced and distributed via YouTube a series of video spoofs of the Cahan & Associates promotional video featuring noted designer Bill Cahan

Bill Cahan

Bill Cahan studied architecture at Washington University, St. Louis, and University of California, Berkeley. He became an architect and practiced at Anshen & Allen architects for 5 years, during which time, in addition to designing buildings, he was responsible for the rebranding of the...

.

Karl Rove Photo Hoax

Medium gained national media attention in April 2007 after a prank in which, the previous month, they photoshopped

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...

 a photo of White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 advisor Karl Rove

Karl Rove

Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...

 to make him appear to be holding a folder with the Coptix (the former named of Medium) logo on the cover. Blogs such as Wonkette

Wonkette

Wonkette is a left-leaning American online magazine of topical satire and political gossip, established in 2004 by Gawker Media and founding editor Ana Marie Cox, and edited by Ken Layne from 2006 to 2011...

 - which called the hoax photo "a crime scene" - and DailyKos ran the doctored photo and claimed (as Wonkette put it) that it proved "without a doubt that Karl Rove is illegally running all the White House e-mail through a private company" to avoid the automatic archiving of the White House email system.. Sites that fell prey to the hoax had failed to notice Sleestaks also had been added to the photograph in a television shown in the background.

External links

• Medium website
• Coptix Flickr Group
• Bill Cahan Spoof Videos
• Diary of a Manufactured Scandal - before and after and production photos of the hoax photo and a list of websites where it appeared
• "Liberal Blogs Get Punked" - Michelle Malkin interview
• The Little Design Firm That Caused a Big Political Scandal - UnBeige applauds Karl Rove photo hoax.