In a comment to the first “Innovation Invasion” blog, we mentioned laser etching on eggs. Well, now there are 35 million of the little ad-laden protein spheroids in circulation, much to the consternation of legions of hens who thought they had raised their children better.

Get ready to find advertising and product placement in novels, hotel shower curtains, school buses and the swollen bellies of pregnant women. USA Today reported that pro golfer Fred Couples has an entourage of woman paid to wear his sponsor’s logo Bridgestone Golf.

The International Herald Tribune reports that quick response (QR) ads allow users to download online information via bar codes embedded in movie posters, business cards and outdoor ads. QR technology has widespread use in Japan, largely because patent-holder Denso Wave allows its free use among marketers. It also helps that wireless carriers have agreed on a single standard for reading the codes.

Even Rance Crain, who makes his living as editor of Advertising Age magazine is crying ‘uncle’, saying, “Advertisers will not be satisfied until they put their mark on every blade of grass. Advertising is so ubiquitous that it’s turning people off,” Crain says.

The was a phrase for this during the Cold War arms race: Mutually Assured Destruction. Advertisers use more and more firepower, but consumers are ignoring the increasingly irritating onslaught. Each side “ups the ante” until we all go blooey in a noisy cloud of ad creep. Retailers won’t rest until ad people personally knock people down in the street, sit on their chests, and whack them on the forehead with a Nike Zoom Vick IV.

People are fighting back, however. More than 130 million phone numbers are on the federal government’s national Do Not Call Registry. Take that, telemarketers! SNAP!

Use of pop-up ad blockers tripled from 2003 to 2006, to 71%, according to Arbitron/Edison Media Research. Users with spam blockers more than doubled to 73%.

When Columbia Pictures said it would cover Major League Baseball bases with Spider-Man 2 logos, angry fans blasted ESPN.com and AOL.com polls. The studio called it off less than two days later.

According to AdAge, this year, marketers will spend a record $175 billion on ads in major media, such as TV, radio, print, outdoor, movie theaters and the Internet, says ad-buying firm ZenithOptimedia. That’s up 5% over 2005. Add direct mail and other direct-response ads, and the total will hit $269 billion.

In the 1970s, the average person was exposed to 500 to 2,000 ad messages a day. Now, it’s 3,000 to 5,000. By 2005, MTV viewers had to put up with 21% more prime-time commercials per hour than in 2004, says media firm MindShare.

A recent promotion for the Paramount Pictures film Jackass: Number Two appears on urinal mats when it is hit with a stream of “number one.”

Appropriate advertising at last.