An example of some of the video game advertising that the Obama campaign employs. This image is a screenshot from the racing game "Burnout Paradise." Photo courtesy of jalopnik.com

Nobody likes them, yet they are everywhere. The amount of advertising and marketing we are exposed to daily is impossible to avoid even if you think you "tune it out." Advertisers constantly find more innovative and aggressive ways to cut through the ad fatigue of modern life, and I have to admit that it doesn’t bother me all that much.

Taxis and buses have become moving commercials. New ads appear at gas pumps (I know because I pumped gas for the first time yesterday). I must say this is probably one of the few occasions when one will actually look at an ad — what else is there to do while filling up the tank? The same goes for check out lines at the grocery store. (You can speculate about the items purchased by the person in front of you only for so long.)

I have even literally ingested a few ads when I forgot to peel off the little ad on my pear. For every gymnastics meet that I entered, I received a T-shirt. Some of them had beautiful designs, but I never wore them because they were spoiled by the big and ugly logos of the sponsors. What a waste.

This plethora of commercial messages is seen as "environment pollutants." The News-Gazette received a lot of complaints about the new billboard put up at the IGA across the street from Jarling’s Custard Cup. It was described as tasteless and intrusive. Some thought it ruined the view. I’m a little perplexed as to what view this would be — it’s not like there is a mountain in the background. But still.

The outcry over the digital advertising board by the Assembly Hall was more vehement. I don’t think dire warnings of countless accidents were realized. Reading the board occupies you while you wait for the light to change. Consuming information this way can hopefully cut out on yet another flier in your mailbox.

A lot of new advertising is more subtle than the "shouting until the veins in your neck will burst" type ad, where some actor, who looks like he escaped from a reality TV show, blatantly tells you his product is better than the other guy’s product. Lame to the extreme.

TiVo does not lead us into a world devoid of advertising, but it does give us more toned-down advertising. Product placement advertising is an improvement on the in-your-face ad. I’d rather watch a Sprint phone being used by a character in a TV series than watch an actual ad for Sprint.

If spin-off merchandise from movies are everywhere and irritate you to no end, don't go to the store. Order your stuff online. Yes, there are advertisements there too, but at least the ads are geared toward your interests. Using sophisticated data-collecting technologies, Web sites combine a user's personal information with surfing preferences to create ads that will at least potentially be of interest.

Sometimes I wonder if a new president isn’t elected solely on the basis of advertisements. Did the swift boat ads make it impossible for Kerry to win? Will a Republican loss be blamed on Barack Obama’s outspending McCain?

Yes, definitely, but those who make that argument will be wrong. It is because of strategic and innovative advertising that the Democrats managed to collect millions of dollars.

The recent idea of embedding advertising temporarily inside a video game is a pretty innovative way to get your message across. Obama is the first presidential candidate to buy ad space inside a video game.

These ads appear in 18 video games, including the popular "Guitar Hero" and "Madden 09" and "Burnout: Paradise." When a gamer connects the console to the Internet, it gets updated with Obama ads.

Unfortunately I won’t see these ads because I don’t play those particular games, and I don’t live in a battleground state. But, then again, I’m also not the target audience for this ad — it tends to be males around 18 to 34 — usually a pretty disengaged group. But chances are, these ads will make them sit up, get up, and vote.

Advertisement is an inescapable part of our society and pervades every aspect of it. Some are extremely negative and damaging, but then there are, fortunately, some that are useful and good.