Is it just me, or is the advertising in society getting a bit much?

I am the first to like a funny advertisement, but I am also probably the last to be influenced to go out and buy something based on an advertisement. Up until recently ads usually consisted of TV/Radio/Newspaper, and more recently the internet. These I can deal with. I notice them if I want to.

But recently I have seen a huge rush on social networking, often by photographers, to setup a photography page for themselves and then try and get everyone they know, and everyone that knows the person that they know, to comment or "like" their page.

This sort of viral advertising is what annoys me. I think I have maybe one photographers facebook page that I have 'liked', the rest I ignore, cause often it seems to be just a race to get more 'likes' than the next photographers page.

Am I the only one that is over it, and just want to use social networking to keep up to date with a few friends and relatives, and not be bombarded with rubbish to play some stupid game, or 'like' someone's page cause they want to get to 5000 likes by next week? If anything, this approach turns me off considering them or their products for my money if I wanted to buy something.

*rant over*