From www.nytimes.com:

For magazine readers who find those little black-and-white pixelated boxes, called QR codes, annoying or just unsightly, a new visual cue is on the way.

For its February issue, House Beautiful has placed digital watermarks on its ads for Glidden paint. Instead of using the black-and-white quick-response code, the ads will feature an orange circle with an image of a mobile phone inside. House Beautiful had begun using the watermark technology, provided by a company called Digimarc, on its editorial pages last summer, and for the first time has expanded the codes to its ad pages.