As we have learned from their foray into print, Google is not immune to spectacularly bad ideas. But as a person in print, Google's attempt to bolster its TV offerings through customizable TV ads is worth paying attention to. The dream of customizable TV ads is that ads can be created with appeal for a specific audience and then delivered only to that audience. The ramifications for the rest of the advertising world if this were to become the norm, could be enormous. For print it might mean that, in order to appeal to advertisers, print products would have to become more defined in their audience and much better at measuring who is actually reading.  

Google TV Ads operates an auction-based system for purchasing targeted ads on EchoStar, similar to Google’s specialty online. Under the new arrangement with Visible World, Google will be able to use its software, which lets advertisers and ad firms adjust a spot by altering its graphics, music and as well as the script.

Full story here.