Ad Trek - Going where no ad has gone before.

Went to a gas station recently, it was early morning and before my coffee, and was blasted with commercial messaging coming from a video monitor built into the gas pump. There's was no getting away from it while I was using the pump which lasted about five minutes. And the whole time, I was getting angrier and angrier at this particular supplier for subjecting me to this. So... where will ad messaging go from here?

Advertisers have been seeking new ways to reach consumers since it all began but never to the fever pitch it has reached over the last 10 years or so.

Traditional media like television has ventured beyond the commercial break to promote themselves. It started with network logos appearing in the bottom right corner of the screen. Sports Networks adopted permanent banners across the bottom of the screen providing constant updates and info about upcoming games. Most recently, some networks have messages that pop-up right over the program your watching (like those annoying pop-ups you see when your online) promoting the next program! They obviously don't think very highly about the quality of their programming.

Advertising could always be found on TV, radio, outdoor and in all magazines and newspapers.
Now you can find ads in bathrooms including the inside of cubicles, in elevators, on floors, even on parking lot gate lift-arms. On every mode of public transport ... subway, bus, streetcar, taxi both inside and out. There's a company in the U.S. that's offering advertisers access to the cab drivers themselves for use as impromptu pitchmen.

However, technology is the real booster engine propelling ad messages.
Websites, viral email and video, podcasts, text messages, digital screens in-stores and even at gas pumps to name a few.

If the when, where and how ad messaging appears keeps expanding that the way it has been, in future no person on the planet may be able to avoid it no matter where they are.

So what's my point.

I have no point to make here but just to ask, where will it end and what will be the impact on us as human beings?

Marshall McLuhan said, "The medium is the message."
So what's the message? Will we evolve to be able to assimilate a limitless amount of messaging? Or will we become drones that simply react to it? Or...