Driver sparks outrage with photo of irritating situation at gas station: 'People deserve a break from this'

Ads can be annoying. Loud, unskippable ads that pop up during routine errands present a whole new level of irritation. One Redditor shared their exasperating experience at a gas station that played ads at the pump with no way to stop them.

Many of the nearly 800 comments strongly agreed with the sentiments of the opening post. One asked where it all ends, saying, "next we will have ads while we take a s*** in a public toilet." Another added, "America is nuts. You literally cannot do anything without advertising being stuffed down your throat." A commenter who described their work as a technician "[fixing] fuel dispensers" called the ads a "nuisance," noting that "people deserve a break from this."

The conversation raises an important point about the ubiquity of advertisements and how they can fuel an unhealthy obsession with consumerism. As much as they're reviled for their interruption of our daily lives, they can also drive excessive and unnecessary purchases, which have dire ecological consequences for the planet.

The unending desire for the newest, latest, greatest widget leads to resource extraction, industrial waste, transportation energy use, and landfilling. In a 40-year span from 1970 to 2010, natural resource consumption tripled globally, according to a United Nations report in 2016.

On average, wealthier nations use up to 10 times the materials that low- and middle-income countries do. If other nations followed America's consumption habits, we would need more than five Earths to meet the increased resource demands.

Worse still, the consequences of these behaviors are not evenly felt, as the Global South is disproportionately impacted by rising temperatures and their effects. And even online, digital ads themselves — like the one the Redditor posted about — can "[consume] significant amounts of energy," according to a 2018 study cited by Earth.org, and drive emissions.

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In the long run, some of the best ways to mitigate waste at home include simple measures like reducing plastics, using consumer goods more effectively, and shopping secondhand. In the short term, some may be able to avoid those annoying ads at the pump.

As one user pointed out, "New [Jerseyans] stay winning!" They were ostensibly referring to the fact that the Garden State is the only one in the U.S. where you can't pump your own gas, so those intrusive ads might be irrelevant for customers there. While other states need not follow New Jersey's lead on this, a wider message may be that legislation to combat ads is very popular.

Finally, one way to avoid ads at the gas pump, no matter where you live, is to go electric. Unless charging stations down the line pick up advertisements too …

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