"I've thought about identifying every one of the pop up ads and contacting the company that puts them out and telling them I'd never buy their product or service because of their outrageous, obnoxious and intrusive advertizing ... but we'd need a whole nation of complaints to make a difference."

Unfortunately, the teaching in many recent (and current) marketing and management "schools" is that being noticed is all that counts. It doesn't matter whether you're noticed for being nice, or for being obnoxious, and anyone can be obnoxious. Many advertisers of the ilk who use methods like popups would consider a whole bunch of complaints as confirmation that their ads were doing what they intended them to do... by making you remember who they are.

John