Remorseless ad creep feasting on powerless consumers

I'M NOT sure if I'm behind the curve here but can I just say something? I am utterly, utterly sick of being sold things.

- LYNNE BARRETT-LEE

Not in a “pop to the corner shop and buy kitchen roll” kind of way, obviously. More - no, COMPLETELY - in a state of exasperation. You need a new Christmas outfit. You need a new pair of boots. You need an innovative new way to clean your kitchen and bathroom. You need a necklace. A mug tree. A novelty dog-coat. NO! What I NEED is for y'all to just button it with the bl**dy ads!

This does not, I fully note, constitute an earth-shattering revelation. Advertising is everywhere. Always has been. Always will be. And, arguably (no doubt about it - some political factions def gonna argue), if people didn’t sell things and other people didn’t buy them, then capitalism, the best-worst of all socioeconomic options, would suffer something of a major body blow. So, at least to a degree, it's a necessary evil. If I need toothpaste and you can’t let me know you make toothpaste, then I can’t find your toothpaste and my teeth will fall out.

But did you ever stop to think just how much advertising is barrelling towards us, every day, every hour, every minute? No, it’s worse. If the combined input of my email inbox and social media are anything to go by, it’s coming at many of us at more like one ad per second, if not more.