Advertisers Planning To Spam Your Phone With Video Ads

It's called ad creep. As an increasing number of available spaces -- from stadiums to grocery store floors, from beach sand to people's foreheads -- become littered with advertising, marketers look hard for new places to hit you with their advertising messages. It's driving them nuts that you spend so much time looking at your cell phone, yet that phone isn't as polluted with spam as your e-mail inbox.We'll now they're doing something about it.

In March, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel plan to start testing video ads -- just to see if they can get away with it.

ESPN also plans to start running video ads for Visa, Nike and Hilton Hotels to subscribers who get sports scores and other information over the phone.

Other companies are hatching similar plots as well.

Unless we want our cell phones to become little TV sets that waste all our valuable time with commercials, we would be wise to cancel in protest any service that forces ads on us.