It seems inevitable that advertisements will play a starring role in the future. Our most futuristic-looking spaces (think New York's Times Square or Tokyo's Shibuya Crossing) are those populated with enormous, LED billboard ads. In this day and age, ad agencies certainly have access to some impressive technology. But one day, even these enshrined corporate monuments will appear primitive. The Advertisement of the Future is coming. It is more effective and more convincing. Its products are more tantalizing and more addictive. There will be no escape.

Science fiction has long chronicled how advertisements might evolve in an advanced technological landscape. How corporate control might come to threaten the very foundation of government. Today on the show, we explore a few of these visions, many of which have already come to pass.

[This is part one of a series on science fiction and advertising.]