IS ADVERTISING TRULY UBIQUITOUS?
By Zulaykha Olaitan Zakariyyah
This article takes a look at how Advertising, as promotion of brands and products, has invaded human lives even more in the digital age. It is an extract from a 2026 final-year Mass Communication examination question of Crescent University, Abeokuta, coded MAS 427: Public Relations and Advertising Campaign Planning & Management.
In today’s world, we see Advertising being ubiquitous anywhere, everywhere and at all times, either consciously or subconsciously. This is especially since the advent of digitalization when Advertising had been a seemingly unavoidable phenomenon.
Everywhere we go, advertisement is being pushed to us, or someone is always trying to sell something to us through various channels of advertising.
While this phenomenon has always aimed for a wide reach, its pervasiveness has evolved significantly from the traditional era to the current digital age, dating back from the 19th century to roughly the early-to-mid 20th century.
In the traditional era, advertisement was already quite widespread but was limited to physical locations and available media spaces. People encountered advertisements mainly in print (newspapers, magazines, billboards, posters, flyers, etc.), broadcast (TV and radio), as well as “out-of-home” formats such as signage, direct mail, and cinema slides.
For instance, billboards lined major roads; they were, and still are, hard to miss while traveling on highways, like the billboards on Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos, for instance. You cannot miss over 10 kilometers of outdoor advertisements sharing you in your face despite the speed of your vehicle.
Broadcast of advertisements are deliberately interrupted on TV and radio programmes, which could reach millions of people during prime time—for instance, the popular soap opera slots. Print advertisements appeared in newspapers and magazines, which households read on a daily basis.This cannot be over emphasized!
Advertising felt “everywhere” in urban areas or among media consumers, but it was not fully unavoidable or inescapable in the pre digital era. Rural areas had less exposure; furthermore, people could switch channels or turn off their television or radio during advertisements.
Additionally, there was no advertising in private communication or on personal devices.
Thus, advertising was pervasive within its reach, but it was constrained by geography, time slots, and one-way communication. While advertising was common and influential in the traditional era, it was not fully ubiquitous across all times, places, and people.
In the digital era, established from the mid-2000s onward, smartphones, social media, and high-speed internet have made advertising more ubiquitous. Advertising has become more prevalent throughout the world.
Advertising is now “hyper-ubiquitous,” driven by internet algorithms. It follows you on social feeds, including social media such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, emails, and search engines. The programmatic nature of advertising allows for real-time bidding and precise targeting.
In today’s world, advertising is very unavoidable. When you scroll through social media, videos pop up to push a product or service to you. Advertising is now seen at every touchpoint. Global connectivity is one major reason why advertising is ubiquitous in today’s world. For example, a viral TikTok video can reach millions or even billions of people across the globe. An influencer could be making a comedy video, and you later discover that they are simultaneously marketing a product through recommendations and reviews.
Another instance where advertising is ubiquitous is evident in our daily lives. In the digital age of the 21st century, many people now do almost everything through smartphones; advertisements appear as banners, pop-ups, video ads, or even clickbait. On streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, and TikTok, advertisements are often unavoidable—they pop up, and sometimes you can’t even skip them, so audiences are forced to watch or hear them. Most of the time, people complain of “ad fatigue” because it is unsolicited and forcefully pushed into our faces.
In today’s digital environment, advertising is truly and absolutely ubiquitous due to its unavoidable and inevitable nature. Are the copywriters saying that Advertising has come to stay omnipresent in our lives?
*Zulaykha Zakariyyah is a final year student of Crescent University, Abeokuta
