Advertising is Everywhere

My grandmothers both have iPads, and they are OBSESSED. One always wants the address of wherever we are driving to so she can plug it in to Apple Maps and follow our travel. She will google anything and everything that we talk about, spewing out new information about the topic. The other loves games like Words With Friends, Scramble With Friends, Sudoku, and so many more. My mom is exactly the same way. It's nearly impossible to pull her away from one of these games until she is done with her turn. Of course, they all play the free versions of these games, and so they are all covered with different advertisements. In between turns, ads pop up and play loudly throughout the kitchen or living room until someone stops them.
This constant bombardment of advertisements got me thinking about how disturbing the frequency of our contact with ads really is. They are literally everywhere: on TV, iPhone/iPad applications, newspapers, magazines, and tailored to us on the side of every website we visit. (I always see clothing items I've online-shopped for lining the sides of the browser.)
I like to think I am aware of this constant manipulation, and that it has less of an effect on me because of this awareness. However, it has become clear that now matter how hard I try to avoid it, or how aware I am of the attempted manipulation, there is no way to avoid it. I am just as susceptible to advertising as anyone else. When that cool pair of shoes I was looking at earlier pops up on the side of an online article that I'm reading for Spanish, I click on it. Sometimes, if the same clothing item pops up enough, I end up buying it. The eeriest thing, though, was my ability to name what a commercial was for based on the music. My mom would ask where the song was coming from and I would say, without thinking, "Oh, it's an ad for an Audi" or something. Terrifying. Especially when I didn't consciously remember seeing the ad.