Most people probably never notice this, but there are actually two ways to apply a drop shadow in Adobe InDesign. Actually, you apply it the same way, but the results are much different depending on the way you have the object selected. 
First, place a logo in a box and fill the box with a white color (to illustrate my point better). Now, if you select your object with the Direct Selection tool (the hollow white arrow tool) and apply the drop shadow, it applies to the logo itself – using the edges of the logo to create the shadow as in the first logo in the screenshot above. As you can see, the box itself is unaffected, but the CG logo has the shadow. But, if you select your object with the Selection tool (the solid black arrow tool) you are actually selecting the box itself. Apply a drop shadow now and you give the box a drop shadow, rather than the logo itself – as seen in the second logo in the screenshot. Now of course this will only work if the box itself is filled with a color. By filling the box with color, you actually give yourself some options. You can apply a drop shadow to both the object and the container it’s in, as seen in the third logo in the screenshot.
