a href="http://www.gamecinemahd.com/>GCHD is producing a new show filled with game trailers and interviews which will screen on the Clear Channel Spectacolor display situated on the corner of 47th and Broadway. CEO Wes Keltner says:"

Our program itself can become interactive with the introduction of Bluetooth and SMS control of the content, thanks to Spectacolor's innovative product. And, as sponsors are added, I think they will begin to see how consumers can touch and engage their brand and ultimately walk away with that brand on their phone.

So actually, it's a big interactive advertising board, albeit an interesting one that transports web-based marketing techniques into a huge public space. The show's producer Ronnie Hobbs certainly doesn't see this as just a money-spinning giganto-ad, he seems to be on a personal crusade to change public perceptions of gaming as a hobby for teenage dirtbags:

It's time to change the conversation about gamers. The average gamer in the U.S. is 33 years old. We feel it is time to treat him/her as an adult and acknowledge they have style. We're doing everything in our power to make this form of entertainment credible, respectable and accepted... Gaming is not a sub-culture anymore. You can still play Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and pay your mortgage.

An inspiring Henry V-style battle cry there, only slightly marred by the fact that a considerable number of Americans can't pay their mortgages and that's why we're all sinking into a catastrophic credit crisis.

Anyhow, the website reckons they'll get 1.6 million impressions daily, although the press release says that 560,000 will pass by the board every day. Which means each passer-by will need to have one look, then do a comedy double-take and then finally look again.

Next stop Piccadilly Circus?