Media, Advertising & Marketing

Today's topic is advertising. I recently watched the documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (by Morgan Spurlock), which focuses product placement, advertising and marketing.
I'm not gonna say if it was a good or bad movie, but I want to talk (or, better, write) about it in related to media and technology.
What I think is definitely true is that we're living in a world surrounded by advertisment. It doesn't matter if we live in a big or small city. Just stop for a moment and think about a typical day of yours. There're products ads and bills all around you. In the newspaper or magazine that you're reading on your way to work by metro/bus (yeah, look up and you're probably gonna notice some ad or flyer of some kind). Public transportations, buildings, magazines and newspapers, etc. It is all around you, either you like it or don't.
How is that possible? In my opinion the answer is one: T-E-C-H-N-O-L-O-G-Y.
Media have been having a key role in the marketing process since the "beginning". Let's think about the media we know and we're probably using every day (right know I'm using one to write this post and you're doing the same as well if you're reading it).
Radio, TV, printed press (newspapers, magazines, etc.), computers (and the role of the Web!) and nowadays the latest innovations such as smart phones, iPads, etc. These are all channels that can be used in order to reach the right addressee and deliver the message that could make him/her go and purchase a product of some sort.
In The Greatest Movie Ever Sold  it's shown how the city of Sao  Paolo (Brazil, one of the largest cities of the west emisphere) has changed after the passing of a bill that forbids to put any kind of "outdoor advertising". In other words it's not allowed to put billboards or similar to builduings, public transportations vehicles, etc. It's amazing how the city changes!
To me it seems pretty obvious that most of these advertising and marketing processes are thought and created thank to the latest technological innovations.
Of course we still have the liberty to choose  wheter to buy a product or not (or at least I like to think so), but it's a fact that the "world of marketing and advertising" surrounds us and tries to reach us with a message of some kind.

NOTE: the purpose of this post is NOT to advertise the documentary or other, but to discuss about some topics that have also been analyzed in the movie.