Survival test; Bell Atlantic and TCI must be as creative with advertising as they are with dealmaking, or their bold venture is doomed

Pundits swear that the proposed merger of Ray Smith’s Bell Atlantic and John Malone’s Tele-Communications Inc. is a bold, brilliant and synergistic meeting of the multimedia minds. They insist that this megadeal signals the opening of–all together now–America’s Information Superhighway. But are they right? Or is this just the latest instance of corporate behemoths discovering that, contrary to the new math of multimedia, two plus two only equals three?
Whatever this merger’s aspirations and expectations, don’t ignore a simple economic reality: If Bell Atlantic/TCI doesn’t evolve into a major medium for advertisers, it will inevitably be a financial failure.