"If you would like to stop receiving these emails, click here to unsubscribe"
Everyone in the 21st century has read this a hundred times, and for good reason. Email providers are strict about restricting spam and only allowing marketing emails through if you have agreed to receive them. Why doesn't all marketing work this way?
A lot of it does, actually. When I watch an ad prior to a YouTube video, I'm implicitly agreeing to be marketed to in exchange for use of a free video hosting site. If I decide that I actually don't agree to that arrangement, I can close that tab and the marketing is gone.
And then, at the other end of the spectrum, you have this:
Awful. A beautiful, natural scene marred by some narcissistic company who decided they had the right to burn gallons of plane fuel just to assault your eyes and ears, ruining your immersion in the natural scenery and - like all ads do - strive to make you feel like you are missing some product or experience.
Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
~ Banksy
Fortunately, we do have hope -- and precedent. You can't, for example, advertise in a national park. The state of Vermont has banned billboards on their highways. Perhaps these were spurred by more practical motivations (like increasing tourism), but nonetheless, they are regulations that prevent instances of non-consensual advertising. Additional examples include regulations around robocalls and text messaging.
All this matters because we learn more and more every day just how effective and manipulative marketing has become. Advertising has shown repeatedly to negatively affect self esteem in both adults and children, and to affect us in powerful ways even without us realizing we've been affected.
Any advertisement you can't 'opt out' of should be illegal.