I'll play the devils advocate here and say that they wouldn't run ads or put out Christmas early etc if there weren't people that listen to the commercial and act on it. I do think that it stinks that there isn't a single venue of entertainment that doesn't have advertising. PBS used to be commercial free but now it's chock full!
I think the quick growth of the ipod and other non-advertising entertainment is very much tied to the lack of advertising.
Claudia