Advertising is not purely bad. It has at least two big benefits.

Without advertising, you wouldn't have, or would pay more for, all sorts of goods and services including magazines, newspapers, television and the Internet.

And without advertising, you'd be pretty much stuck with current brands and products, with little possibility of learning about new competitors, deals, or innovations. Word of mouth would still exist, sure, but it doesn't always work well. Media stories and reviews could inform you, too, if they still existed without advertiser support, and if the stuff you wanted to know about would fit into their limited editorial space. That's a lot of ifs.

Too much advertising, though, can be a bad thing. It can confuse, stress and distract.

Worst of all, when advertising becomes too strong, when ad dollars rule, facts turn squishy. The media carrying the advertising can drop or alter stories that might harm advertisers, they can beef up or add stories that help the advertisers, they can even create an overall climate that says "buying brings happiness."

Sound like anyplace you know? The Internet, perhaps? Let's see:

Banner ads, of all shapes and sizes, on all sorts of Web sites, suggesting you click through to learn this and purchase that.

Text links, which don't take as long to download as banner ads, but have the same function.

Affiliate links, in which a site suggests products in what seems a neutral way, but gains a percentage when you click on the link and buy something.

Pop-up and pop-under ads, in which a new window appears on your screen, a sort of huge banner ad, urging you to click and spend.

Sponsored search listings, in which companies pay to be listed higher on an Internet search site.

Spam, those unasked for e-mail ads promoting some great deal.

Viral e-mails, in which someone you know sends you something nice, like an electronic greeting card, that you can respond to only if you also sign up for the service and see on-screen suggestions that you pay for some premium version.

IM (instant message) and chat frauds, in which you hear about the wonders of some service or goody from a chatter or new buddy without knowing that they've been paid to recommend the whatever.

Portal advertorials, in which your Web home page has "articles" or "lists" that aren't really informative, but just push purchases.

Spyware, in which software, unknown to you, watches what you do and signs you up for targeted telemarketing or snail-mail spam.

Toolbar tricks, in which that inexpensive or free Internet service makes you view regular and snooping ads on screen.

Mobile merchandising, in which your Internet-enabled cell phone beeps, buzzes and rings with offers to buy local pizzas or up-to-the-minute mortgages.

Enough! Too much! If you don't fight back, the ads will just keep multiplying, filling more and more space. Your useful screen space will shrink, your connection speed will shrivel, your memory will choke on the ads.

How do you cut back on the advertising, sending a message to the Internet companies that they must balance ads with service?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Start by pushing your Internet service provider to send you fewer ads of any kind - banner, pop-up, whatever. Of the big-name ISPs, Earthlink is my favorite in the ad battle, with AOL (too many pop-ups and telemarketing links), MSN (a portal page that's sickeningly full of ads, many of them for Microsoft's own services), and NetZero/Juno (forcing ads and even downloaded monitoring software on you) competing to be the worst.

2. Tune your software to avoid ads when possible. For example, in Internet Explorer's Options you can choose not to display pictures. A blunt response to ads, yeah, but it will prevent a lot of them from wasting your downloading time or attention. The free Mozilla browser (www.mozilla.org) has a Preference you can set to prohibit the program from opening windows without your say-so. That will stop pop-ups completely.

Or you can download a pop-up-stopping utility from companies such as AdSubtract.com or PanicWare.com. It's funny that Internet Explorer, supposedly so powerful, doesn't include a pop-up stopper, but then, that lack of the feature might comfort advertisers.

It's clear the advertisers' demands are more important here.

I notice that Earthlink is now shipping a pop-up stopper on its signup discs, a great sign and another reason I prefer it to AOL and MSN. It's also available at its Web site for customers to download for free.

3. Use a search site or portal that doesn't have any ads, such as DMOZ.org (the huge collection of volunteer-suggested and categorized Web site links) or Google.com (which does have sponsor ads, but clearly separates them from the main listings).

I love DMOZ for its ad-free and untainted listings. I also love Google, which has great listings and actually useful ads that don't try to sneak into the main lists. Look up "pop-up blocker" at Google for a great example. I'm intrigued by the new MyWay.com portal that has most of the same features of Yahoo, such as news, weather, sports, but without the ads.

4. Say NO to any service, such as NetZero/Juno, that forces you to have an ad "toolbar" or that monitors your online actions.

5. Say GO, as in "I'm leaving immediately," to any cell-phone company that uses its new features to send you unwanted ads. We'd better team up to squash this new ad fungus before it spreads.

6. Check AdBusters.org and consider their challenge to celebrate "Buy Nothing" Day. Instead of stuffing ourselves on things over the Thanksgiving weekend, let's celebrate family and doing and freedom, including freedom from ads and obeying their dictates.