As if we aren’t already surrounded by enough ads flashing on TV, driving by on trucks, showing off in Times Square and talking your ear off on the radio, Russian company StartRocket is looking to put them in space. For real. StartRocket wants to use Cubesats to plaster the night sky with ads that could be floating around as soon as 2021. Astronomers are not having it. Glowing ads up there would only add to the increasing problem of light pollution and make it even more difficult to study objects in space...

There's little doubt that TV's commercial breaks are on the decline. How do you get people to watch ads in an era of ad-skipping DVRs and commercial-free streaming services like Netflix or Hulu? Fox Networks has an idea: turn ad time into mini dramas you might want to watch. Variety has learned that Fox will will start running Unbreakables, or short, sponsored films that highlight people who've overcome adversities like cancer.

You might have noticed that even when using a lightning-fast Internet connection, it takes a few beats, enough time to drum your fingers, for web pages to load. It’s likely because of online advertising, which bogs down your browser, drains your battery and jacks up mobile charges — not to mention collects private data.