In what has to be one of the worst advertising concepts ever, an apparently blind drunk group of French ad execs came up with the idea that billboards should be able to call you on your mobile phone. As you pass by a billboard, the billboard will send your phone a video ad that you can watch later. It is designed for urban environments where people are traveling on foot and on public transit.
This is designed as an opt-in service, meaning you have to sign up for it. Which of course begs the question, "Who in their right mind would ever agree to such a thing?" I can see it now...."Gosh, I am not yet barraged enough with ads on every surface and every medium I watch or listen to. I think I need more ads--more video ads that I will watch in my spare time."
Uh huh.
This is utterly incomprehensible. Who wants their phone filled up automatically with huge video files that they are going to sit down and watch later? In an average day traveling around a place like Paris or New York, even if the ads are targeted somewhat, you'd be flattened with the things. Here is the most scary part of this.
"...the means to interact with the world will be your mobile phone..."
I have an idea: Let's interact with the world with our eyes and ears and mouth. Let's put down the cellphones and the iPods and actually pay attention to the real world, not the made up world of crazed advertising execs who think everything worth watching or reading should be crammed onto a 2" fuzzy mobile phone screen.