• NY Times, Tuesday, January 17, 2006 11:30 AM

In what many observers view as a predictable inevitability, television ads are coming to some of the smallest screens possible: cell phones. This year, a handful of marketers are expected to begin delivering video, audio, banner displays and text clips to mobile devices that could even include information based on the users' location. With that information, marketers could, in theory, send pitches from retailers to cell phone users who might be in the vicinity of a store. Cell-phone-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. But the strategy is not without its critics. Advocacy groups argue that advertising on cell phones is too intrusive. "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."

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