My biggest problem with advertising in America is that it so damn effective. I have a hard time driving down the street and seeing some guy in the car next to me shoving French fries (which actually are Belgian) into his face hole at a rate only matched by competition eaters. So much of the American population is sucked into this over consuming profit driven economy that I can’t help but feel sorry for their ignorance. I don’t know where the switch was flipped in me to recognize manipulation when I see it, but it is extremely annoying to watch.

Recently there was a commercial that aired featuring that heifer Anna Nicole. Evidently her show made her enough money for liposuction and she landed a endorsement for Trim-spa. In the ad she is asked how she lost weight and she responds “It’s Trim-spa baby!” I wince every time I see it because I know that some poor sucker is sitting on his/her couch shoveling bar-b-q chips into their mouth and thinking, “you know, that’s the answer.

It seems as though there is no where for me to escape this torment. There are billboards for outdoor advertising. Television, radio, and magazine advertisements take residence inside. The new wave of advertising has hit the men’s room. This tactic makes use of that 45-second period men spend idle while relieving themselves. Nowhere is safe.

I have given up listening to the radio. Listening music through this medium just doesn’t seem worth the fifteen-minute commercial break every thirty minutes. And I am convinced that they have it timed so that they are all playing commercials at the same time. It’s public radio for me. Advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry taking up over one quarter of the marketplace.

The pop-up ad is not only ineffective it makes me very angry. I click on a link that is supposed to take me to hot and horny co-eds only to solicited by penis enlarging products that reduce my debt. I think these things should be illegal.