Every day is a battle for people’s attention. Whether it’s a commercial on TV, a billboard on the side of the road calling your attention or that poor high schooler on the side of the road – bored out of his mind – waving that sign for some store you’ve never heard of before, companies are always trying to get more business.

Companies are always expanding their influence, attempting to cast the spell of their product on as many people as possible. While advertising does comprise an important part of business, some take it a step too far.

For instance, the Granite Bay High School track team has “scored” a deal from Nike this past year. As far as I can tell, the only side effect of this endorsement is forcing the team to wear a specific set of clothes, purchased exclusively from Nike through the school, at an excessive price.

I understand wanting to have a common uniform for the entire team, but jacking up the price on the clothes we are basically required to purchase, and not letting us wear anything else, is absurd.

In my opinion, targeting a high school is a bit excessive, even for such a large company. If you haven’t heard of Nike, you most likely have never seen any real part of civilization in your life – their merchandise is everywhere and they don’t really need any more publicity.

If you want to sell more products, try advertising a bit less and making some new stuff for people to buy. Simply renewing the old stuff with a new look might work for a while, but come up with new products.

I am not saying advertising is bad, but it simply annoys me when it is taken so far. I don’t want logos splattered all over the place.

And yet here they are, taking another step, simply annoying me. I know your company. I know you just want more revenue, and I know I am fed up with it.

There comes the time when you just need to back off and not shove your product down the throat of just about everyone in the nation. When a company is making $24.13 billion annually, you are well-known.

Unless you have a new product, get out of my face and let me live my life without your “Hey, look at me!” ads all day long.

While some people may succumb to advertising, I simply get annoyed and become less likely to purchase the product.

Sensory overload is common enough for me in an average day without you practically shoving your money in my face in an attempt to draw my attention.