• USA Today, Friday, October 13, 2006 1:15 PM

It may be an old story, but it keeps getting worse: Advertising continues to intrude on more previously untouched corners of life. The more consumers ignore ads, the more ads marketers spew back at them. The average 1970s city dweller was exposed to 500 to 2,000 ad messages a day; now, it's 3,000 to 5,000, according to the consulting firm Yankelovich.

Viewers are not only exposed to more ads in traditional media, but also in venues that did not exist a short time ago, from TV screens in public places to the newest growth frontier: small-screen devices such as iPods, cell phones, laptops and video games. Not to mention a recent promotion for the film "Jackass" in which Number Two appears on urinal mats when the mat is hit with a stream of "number one."

Marketers have to stop pitching so hard, fast, loudly and frequently, says Max Kalehoff of marketing research firm Nielsen BuzzMetrics. "If you want to make friends with your customers, you have to stop hitting them over the head."

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