Advertising, the promotion of goods or services through the use of slogans, images, and other attention-getting devices, has existed for thousands of years, but by the late 1990s in the United States it had become ubiquitous, permeating almost every aspect of American life. Indeed, the most omnipresent trend was the placement of advertisements and logos on virtually any medium that could accommodate them. Advertising and brand logos appeared regularly on T-shirts, baseball caps, key chains, clothing, plastic cups and mugs, garbage cans, bicycle racks, parking meters, the bottom of golf cups, in public restrooms, on mousepads, in public school hallways, and, for schools fortunate enough to be located near major airports, on school rooftops. The quest for new advertising venues never stopped—advertising has been placed on cows grazing near a highway (in Canada), and on the edible skins of hot dogs.

Television screens became commonplace in many...