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Great points, and it's important we address this from a realistic perspective.
I don't have all the answers, but I would start with the low-hanging fruit to avoid penalizing innocent people. Pretty much everything we can all agree on is an ad would be prohibited, you could think of it as "systemic advertising." (ads in the middle of videos, billboards, banners). Would somebody wearing a branded shirt be considered advertising? Probably not. Would somebody standing on the side of the road twirling a sign for a business be advertising? Absolutely.
I don't think there's a "perfect" solution and some viral marketing is bound to get through. As with any crime, stopping it would depend on the resources available to the community.
I would consider a place where systemic advertising is illegal and penalties are enforced to be a success.
I think rather than address all advertising, it would be best and easiest to create a more specific "obnoxious advertising" category and put things in it as needed. Honestly I don't really care if someone twirls a sign, but if that becomes the go to and there are twirlers on every block then I'd get sick of them really fast.
But you also have to allow for things folks might genuinely want to know. If a local restaurant has a grand opening and you don't let them tell people, they at might have trouble getting foot traffic after they open. If I start up a competitor to a trash service, ads are likely the only way people are going to know my service is 15% cheaper.
I don't like advertising, but I do acknowledge a certain amount is probably necessary.
This is how you do it. You create clear and direct laws that specify what isn't okay. New Hampshire banned all billboards. I believe Vietnam recently banned all ads longer than 15 seconds online. These make it absolutely clear what is and isn't okay, and leave no wiggle room for companies to try to circumvent the laws on technicalities.
the post office has the cheapest targeted door-to-door advos you can get (which big corps/politicians abuse to absolutely spam the shit...which means people throw the shit away immediately. ironically the post office should charge more, or have some kind of local discount thing idk...)
And that's part of the issue; this assumes that we've somehow come to a consensus on what 'ads' are, or which are 'bad'. I can get behind getting rid of obtrusive ads, such as pop-ups and video interruptions, but I also actually like billboard advertisements (As long as they are in locations that respect what's around them, are legible from a distance (not wordy, I'm trying to drive!), and don't have eye-searing lights). When I travel, billboards often bring us to some interesting locations we may not have thought of before.
Personally, I'd look at making policies restricting "obtrusive advertising". I don't mind the advertising, I mind the delivery.