It looks like the relative ad-free environment of your cell phone is about to be populated with advertisments, reports The Times. Verizon and Sprint are said to be testing “short” video ads on their services in March.

In general, we’re fine with unobtrusive ads in exchange for free services, like sponsored SMS information lookups. Video commercials seem less appealing, to say the least, especially when customers are already paying a premium for the high-speed data services that make video on phones possible. That’s the same logic that sold us ‘ad-free’ cable television the ’80s, however, and we all know how that worked out. Needless to say, this would be the time to start making it clear to cellphone companies about your preferences for unsolicited advertising on your subscription services.

From the article: Cellphone-based marketing could be “the silver bullet we’ve been looking for in advertising for a long time,” said Laura Marriott, executive director of the Mobile Marketing Association, a consortium of wireless carriers, ad agencies, technology companies and advertisers.

We’re not sure, but we think she just called customers werewolves.

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