tier 1—white noise. outside of the greater structure of media and unintentional signs and symbols, it's as harmless as is achievable. most ads for food, non-sequitur gags, weird celebrity associations. i'm not one to gatekeep the term at all, but these are the easiest for me to enjoy as art, if i can work myself up to it. i live here every day, after all

tier 2—it's getting in your face, actually telling you what to do or create a reserved pathway in your neurons. intentionally annoying earworms, disinfo, and the lowest common denominator of consumption as an end in itself.

tier 3—actively malignant. not only are they trying to buy billboard space in your brain, they're working to sell, legitimize, or at the very least stand immobile in your living room, squawking a way you should feel bad about yourself, your relationships, your material condition, or anything actually human you have. decades of psychology dedicated to alienating you.

tier 4—actually relatively rare, these. instead of indirectly making everything worse through ideological whiffs, it's just Raytheon trying to appear normal or a valid entity in society through your tv screen. the tier most about the 'who' as opposed to the 'what' of the ad itself