You can try to avoid television advertising with your fancy DVR, podcast downloads and Hulu streams. But Don Draper types will just repeat annoying ads like these, endlessly, until you're insane.

Ad Age reported on this phenomenon earlier this month: The more choices consumers have, the more they dodge ads. The more they dodge ads, the more saturation advertising campaigns get launched.

But viewers' attention spans have gotten so short that they get irritated with ads much more quickly than they used to — "wear out" in eight viewings vs. in 15-20 viewings a decade ago. So saturation campaigns just get them REALLY missed, and they start forming online hate groups against particular spots.

Today's outpouring of bile comes courtesy Liesl Schillinger, the Times and New York magazine arts writer. She (rightly) flagged the following three spots as the most irritating ads of 2008.

You should, of course, prepare for the holiday television feast by cathartically naming other terrible 2008 ads in the comments section.

Zyrtec "Time in a Bottle ad," starring the woman one broadcast DJ apparently dubbed "Zyrtec bitch" and who Schillinger described as that "slap-happy redhead giggling senselessly."

(via Metacafe)

Hotels.com blows for you in the bath. "Revolting."

Viva Viagara. Not only was this one truly terrible, you couldn't get it out of your head. Schillinger: "Viva change the channel."