Okay, readers. Here is a story Marketing Blurb simply does not want to discuss. Video 
advertising is coming to a very small cell phone screen near you. According to the New York Times (paid archive access,) wireless carriers Verizon and Sprint will begin testing short cell phone video ads in March. Major marketers including Visa, Nike, Hilton, American Express, and Microsoft are expected to participate. Cellular customers viewing the ads may receive a discount on their service fees.
"This is part of the creep of advertising into every nook and cranny of our lives," said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit consumer group. "This is advertising right in your face."
Marketing Blurb believes mobile advertising is both awful and inevitable. (Of course, the same is true for the existence of cell phones in the first place.) Our recommendation is simple. Close the damn cell phone and talk face-to-face.
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