Ads in Space
A new patent was granted recently to facilitate placing ads in (outer) space that are visible from Earth.

The Russian news agency Interfax reported this week that a Russian investor has patented a concept for advertisements in outer space. The inventor, Alexander Lavryonov, is a little vague regarding how it would work, other than it would require a number of satellites equipped with mirrors to reflect sunlight, spelling out words or forming logos that would be visible to people on the Earth. While the article treats this as a novel concept, the concept of orbiting billboards is nothing new. Over a decade ago Georgia-based Space Marketing proposed placing what essentially would have been a giant Mylar balloon in orbit that, on Earth, would appear to be the size and brightness of the full Moon

It doesn't sound like we'll be seeing these any day now or anything, but it does seem pretty symptomatic of where things are heading. Closer to coming to fruition, and just as disturbing, is this plan to place advertisements on children's schoolbuses.
Link: Technology Review: The Final (Advertising) Frontier?