The biggest way businesses reach out to people is by advertising. I personally hate it, in all of its forms. As a college student, I see it more so then I ever have, and I can’t go at least one day at school without being hassled.

I can’t recount the number of times I’ve been strolling down the breezeway, keeping to myself, thinking about how so-and-so class is pointless when all of a sudden a jolly-looking company representative for a credit card company has jumped in my face and asks, “Would you like a free football?”

The first thing that comes to my mind is the first thing I always ask, “What’s the catch?” The credit card company representative’s once beaming smile will be more seemingly like a grin than a warming smile as they’ll try and hand you a clipboard.

I usually immediately laugh say no thanks, and walk away as the representative continues to tell me why his credit card is better then the rest, unfortunately for him, his debonair talk is nothing for my sharp excuses. It’s almost like these advertising representatives are trying to pick us up with crappy pickup lines.

That’s just one aspect of advertising that affects me though. The best way to secularly advertise is probably through television. I for one don’t want television, just football. Television is the epitome of mind decay and there are very few shows with substance that stimulate the mind to begin with. That’s another rant though.

It’s advertising that makes television worse then what it already is. During any given thirty minute block on a regular programmed television station schedule, you see anywhere between 20 to 30 advertisements, depending on their size and length. Then of course they’ll re-run an advertisement or two on the station a lot more than they run the others, so you have one product that is being pushed at you more and more.

And sure, advertising in small doses is nifty, and some of the commercials can be funny, but we already get exposed to so much advertising already, by the time you turn off the television to go to sleep at night, you’re just exhausted from the commercials.

While I’m on the topic of television and watching it, movie theaters annoy me a lot. You pay seven dollars for a ticket, which is supposed to be a reduced cost from the advertising, but it’s still expensive for only two to three hours of your time.

Now, every time you go to see a movie, you first have to sit through 20 minutes of advertising, before the previews. Even going to see a movie is a hassle now.

The newest form of advertising, which has only appeared in more recent years, would be advertising via the Internet. Originally, advertisers would only add one or two small pop-up links that could potentially lead you to other sites, while were annoying could be easily closed and would never appear again.

Although, the past year adware, as it’s called, has become bigger by companies, is more annoying then ever. What happens is, when you got a website, it’ll download cookies, or secret small files, onto your computer hidden within the folders of your computer, and will constantly pop up on a timer, or whenever a certain webpage is loaded.

This becomes a problem, because most of these programs are linked, and can slow down your computer and cause the computer user to be closing pop-ups all day. The funny thing is, some of these advertisements that pop up are for getting rid of adware.

So, it’s like the businesses will put adware on your computer, then offer to sell you something to remove it.

Well, in all sincerity, I don’t browse the Internet on my home computer anymore, because I don’t want to deal with getting rid of the adware that installs itself on your computer.

While this type of advertising is horrible, and ineffective, yet advertisers are pursuing these tactics stronger then ever.

People spend more time getting frustrated at these companies than clicking the advertisements. Plus, it’s not like if you click it, the pop-ups go away. While ads on web sites don’t make individual pages look professionally done, they get the point across without frustrating the user.

The trick is to obtain an Apple computer to browse the web, most of the adware is meant to only manipulate computers with Windows.

Advertising, while annoying, is necessary to a lesser degree. We get exposed to so much advertising in this day and age, it’s pretty much unnecessary. I personally only use products that professionals recommend to me, and even sometimes they can be wrong, or untrustworthy, it’s all about having the right sources.

Then again, I’m sure the companies that obsessively advertise make a good deal of money, more so than companies whom don’t advertise as much.

That’s what it’s all about though, making money. And no matter how many people get annoyed with your tactics, no matter how many people suffer with ongoing computer viruses, no matter how useless your product is, as long as you’re making money, that’s all that matters, right?