Watching the non-stop commercials of scores of mobile phone companies on TV, it just crossed my mind that it must be costing them billions. Billions in producing the ever new and so rapidly changing ads, billions in paying for their production, purchase of airtime and prime time broadcast. Why can't it be done in much less? They just need to sponsor a sports team of choice, say football. It would surely cost them a fraction of what they pay for the TV advertisements now and could possibly get them the same level of publicity, maybe even more, for their products. Imagine the healthy sports activity that would generate among the youth of the country. Tournaments at tehsil, district, province and, finally, at the national level will not just attract throngs of the entertainment-starved populace but also give Pakistan a football team of international standing as a byproduct. All kinds of advertising props like the T-shirts, caps, footballs, uniforms, bags, satchels etc in the team colours with the mobile company logo prominently displayed on them would produce hundreds of thousands of walking/talking 'billboards' for the sponsors. Well, just a thought -COL (Retd) RIAZ JAFRI, Rawalpindi, via e-mail, August 16.