Some sound effects which I’ve heard in radio advertisements, and which I think should be outlawed in that medium:

• Sirens. You know the deal– you’re driving down the road and you hear a siren. Where’s the emergency vehicle? Where should you pull over? You look around, but before you know it, the sound has suddenly stopped; you then realize it was just a sound effect that had been inserted into an advert to “alert” you to the sale at John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith Ford-Lincoln-Mercury™®©. Aaaagh!
• Thunderstorms and the like. Nothing like hearing the echoes of bad weather while you’re driving along on what’s already a rather dark day, especially when you realize it’s only a sound effect.
• Mobile phone ring tones. There’s an ad running on one local radio station that starts off with that oh-so-familiar Nokia trademark ring. Logical enough; the ad mimics a phone conversation between two parties, promoting a local non-profit discount store. Unfortunately, the ring tone at the beginning of the commercial is so accurately reproduced, it’s caused more than a few people I know to begin searching for their phones (and they aren’t even Nokia phones; their ring is thus entirely different) in somewhat of a panic.

And an honorable mention, this one for television ads:

• Doorbells. Those of you who own dogs should need no further comment. (“‘S OK, boy! It was only the TV! Nobody’s here!”)

Oh, and last but not least, on annoying web ads: I know I’ve mentioned this before, but why doesn’t some epilepsy association start a lawsuit against the brain-dead advertiser who comes up with those incessant “IF THIS IS FLASHING, YOU’VE WON” ads? I’m not epileptic and I still have to turn off animated GIFs in my browser to avoid being driven batty by those things. Then again, of course, the local epilepsy association is the organization running the above-mentioned radio ad that starts off with a ring tone…