'Highly directional sound' = the end of solitude?

This is one of the more depressing things I've read lately: Advertising through "highly directional sound." Advertisers will be able to focus advertising pitches to very small areas -- so, for example, when you walk past the Preparation H, you'll hear a spiel for that, and when you walk past the cold medicine, you'll hear a pitch for that. Supposedly "it doesn't contribute to ambient noise pollution," but how are you going to avoid it in, say, a subway car? How far away is the day when there's a tiny speaker over your airline seat, where you're a captive audience for hours on end, broadcasting advertisements that are picked for you personally, based on your gender, age, and everything else the airline and the credit card company knows about you?

Fucking AAACK.

technorati: marketing, advertising