GQ Mobile to offer ads by text

Highbrow men's magazine GQ is taking the wireless plunge in a rather peculiar way- by essentially making you pay to receive advertisements through SMS. BusinessWeek is reporting that the venerable fashion rag has teamed up with content distribution specialist m-Qube to offer its four million readers "information about events, private sales,
shopping nights, and giveaways" on their cellphones in the form of non-free text messages. While GQ is pushing its ads as "original content," even its own marketing director says that the venture is "a business opportunity. It isn't about editorial," which is probably not the type of marketing they teach in business school these days. When GQ Mobile goes live on the 27th readers simply need to text "GQ" to "GQMAG" to begin the advertising deluge.