FOOTBALL: Visa has re-upped its NFL sponsorship, which
it has held since '95, through the 2004 season. The company
will continue to leverage its NFL tie via the "Visa. It's
Everywhere NFL Fans Want to Be" theme (Visa)....Jets Owner
Robert Johnson IV is "hiring consultants to coordinate" one
Jets green color. Johnson: "Each team item is now a slightly
different shade from every other. It needs one color. One
Jets green. To read the same way on TV" (N.Y. POST, 4/21).
VIRTUAL ADS: USA TODAY's Bruce Horovitz examined
virtual advertising in a Business section Cover Story, and
wrote, "For the moment, virtual advertising is an industry
the size of a gnat. Total revenue was less than $10 million
last year, media buyers estimate. But industry experts
suggest that figure could top $1 billion within five years."
But Princeton Video Image says that it has "refused some
client requests," including a foreign network broadcasting a
"sparsely attended soccer game" that asked the company to
use its technology to make "the stands look full of fans."
PVI CEO Dennis Wilkinson: "We're not tampering with reality.
We're just putting some ads out there" (USA TODAY, 4/24).
