Is a catalogue? Yes, I would say so, however it's a fundamentally less offensive, less coercive, format than billboards. I am not made to suffer the content

Is a catalogue? Yes, I would say so, however it's a fundamentally less offensive, less coercive, format than billboards. I am not made to suffer the contents of a catalogue unless I opt into it. I would only open a catalogue if I've already decided that I want to see what it contains, probably because I want to purchase something that it may contain. Shops are similar to this, I don't enter a shop unless I've decided to purchase something I believe they might have. One difference is the amount of signage outside the shop, which assaults me whether or not I've decided to enter the shop. (The cover of a catalogue arguably does the same, but is much smaller and that's an important difference.) Thankfully many municipalities have taken a stand against this and have begun regulating commercial signage, if only to preserve the local aesthetic / property values. Consider the difference between Victoria and Vegas. Both have no shortage of commercial zoning. One is delightful, the other is an blight. A monument to just how bad things can be when we allow commercial interests to run rampant. Cynical, exploitative, and ugly.