Bad advertising is irritating, like a cheese grater applied lightly but constantly to your exposed flesh is irritating. Good advertising, on the other hand, is maddening. All that creative juice poured down exactly the wrong drain.

Fer instance: here are a couple of great ads. If you happen to have a broadband internet connection, you can watch them. Otherwise you can’t because they aren’t going to be be shown in America (or presumably Canada): 10 Ads America Won’t See, from AdAge. Particularly have a look at “Mr. Kipling’s Virgin Birth”, which is both a blasphemously medical take on a nativity pageant and an add for mince pies, and the “Cog” ad (labeled “won’t work here” on the site) which is a truley outstanding bit of very pleasing computer animation. Advertising a Honda Accord or whatever. What a sensless waste of human ingenuity. Profit is waste people. Come on now.