December 31st, 2003
Marketers Are Preparing Radio Commercials That Also Send Text Messages to Car Dashboard Displays
By Nat Ives
The New York Times
For marketers, it may finally be paradise by the dashboard light. Big radio companies like Clear Channel Communications and Infinity Broadcasting are equipping some stations with technology that broadcasts not just commercials but text messages that appear on car radio displays. And advertisers like First Charter Bank in Charlotte, N.C., which will use the approach in a campaign beginning in late January, are signing on to see whether extra text can give their spots extra heft.
Gary Ruskin, executive director at Commercial Alert, a consumer advocacy group in Portland, Ore., called the text ads “the newest invasion of ad creep.”