Advertising is useful, when it informs.
Classified ads in newspapers serve this function well. Those seeking a job, a used car, furniture, pets and hundreds of other goods and services can turn to that section while the rest of us pass it by. But an increasing proportion of advertising is not intended to inform but to seduce. To do that ads must capture our attention and increasingly they are doing so in ways so invasive that we need, as a society, to draw the line. But when the national rollout takes place next year, expect to be bombarded not only by sights but also sound as you walk down the food aisles.