Hearst's Good Housekeeping will have to work a bit harder than re-energizing its stamp of approval to generate the type of interest Domino barely needs to lift a finger to come by, but it looks like the staid (though highly read) mag is making an earnest stride back toward relevancy. Accompanying the launch of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute – located on the 29th floor of Hearst's new glass tower, which means Dysons and Swiffers are commanding about $2,500 a square foot – is the resuscitation of GH's approval seal. Launched in 1909, the seal is the magazine's little way to say "we tested the shit out of this thing so you didn't have to buy it, return it, and pay a restocking fee." But not any marketer can snag a GH stamp, even if its product can withstand the rigor of the lab's environmental chamber:

The lab is important because, in a bit of circular self-promotion, no product can earn the seal or advertise in the magazine unless it passes the lab’s tests, and advertisers using the seal must agree to buy a minimum number of ad pages, typically as much as they would buy in Good Housekeeping’s competitors.

Which, as critics note, is a glorified version of pay-for-play. But someone's gotta help finance the four test kitchens and 7,000X microscope that'll turn your mother's greying chin hair into a science fair project.