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Aggressive advertisement is the tragedy of the commons in action, and few people see it.

This is not a zero-sum game. You are paying for this, with your attention and mind. Yeah, we have become great at filtering out all the crap they throw at us, both with technology (on the Internet) and with our mind (for billboards, etc.) - but both comes at a price. A price that we pay, not the advertisers.

These parasites are grazing their cattle on our common space. Our bandwidth, our public spaces, our visual field.

And they don't know their place. They should be thankful we let them, they should wonder every morning why we don't make them pay for wasting our resources. Not the building they nail their billboard to, or the site they mess up with pop-up-under-obnoxious crap, but us, the owners of the public resources they contaminate.

Instead, they whine and cry and demand more.
They are like really badly behaved children, and need to be treated that way.
If someone doesn't understand the value of what he's been given for free, the best way to teach him is to take it away. Sao Paolo needs to become an example for cities world-wide.

We can't really let this thread go on without mentioning São Paulo. Looks like the experiment is going well too.

Five years later, São Paulo continues to exist without advertisements. But instead of causing economic ruin and deteriorating aesthetics, 70 percent of city residents find the ban beneficial, according to a 2011 survey. Unexpectedly, the removal of logos and slogans exposed previously overlooked architecture, revealing a rich urban beauty that had been long hidden.

http://www.newdream.org/resources/sao-paolo-ad-ban

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/opinion/blogs/lucy-handley/sao-paulo-ad-ban-makes-marketers-more-creative/4003461.article

Brazilian city Sao Paulo banned all outdoor ads six years ago. But what is interesting for now is that the city is allowing graffiti art – and the US conglomerate and Olympic sponsor GE has taken advantage of this.

It has commissioned three huge graffiti murals which appear on the sides of tall buildings, artworks that try to get across what it is that GE does – whether that be in energy, technology or infrastructure. GE’s logo appears on them, but it is really the murals themselves that are eye catching and they don’t look like advertising.

We can't really let this thread go on without mentioning São Paulo. Looks like the experiment is going well too.

Five years later, São Paulo continues to exist without advertisements. But instead of causing economic ruin and deteriorating aesthetics, 70 percent of city residents find the ban beneficial, according to a 2011 survey. Unexpectedly, the removal of logos and slogans exposed previously overlooked architecture, revealing a rich urban beauty that had been long hidden.

http://www.newdream.org/resources/sao-paolo-ad-ban

They should've wondered this before.

Why do we use AdBlock? Because the web without is intolerable. The fuckers who made it so are the ones you should be complaining to.

Ok, that won't help you now that things are the way they are. But here's what you (as the owner of an individual site) can do: Learn! Don't make the same mistake again. Your solution is not more are "higher-value"(*) advertisement. Your solution is less advertisement.

Heck, why is Google Search an online advertisement Goliath? Because the ads are tolerable, they don't distract from the actual task I visit the site for and *gasp* they might actually be relevant. Yes, they do lots of tracking and all that, I didn't say they are perfect. But copy the concept of "less, unobtrusive ads".

It's not just online, btw. - offline advertisement is taking the same route, just slower. There is more of it and it's more distracting (moving, blinking, animated, whatever technology allows). And there is the same counter-movement, though again, slower. But look here:
http://www.newdream.org/resources/sao-paolo-ad-ban
http://youtu.be/Vta6Cn_dLTE

(*) which is an euphemism for "more obnoxious and/or more tracking"

Or, for a more partisan spin, take this quiz.

Perhaps you enjoy eating more, buying more, and living longer than your ancestors. However, I may not choose the same metric as you. Perhaps I would like to work less time, spend less money, and spend more time with my family and friends. Please don't assume that we share the same values.

I agree with you that things tend to get better. However, this is only because some people have actively fought to improve the conditions around them. Just like your bedroom, if you do not put in the effort to keep it clean, it will become dirty.

at least about the AAA. Once again, I learn something every day. Though the BWC needs a better server.

Try a Christmas holiday without consumerism. Your electronic appliances work just fine without replacing them. Spend some time with friends and family. Save some money. Enjoy yourself.

Check out The Center for a New American Dream.