We seem comfortable with regulation in advertising to some degree - where the product has a detrimental effect on health, like tobacco and alcohol. Seems like junk food is on the cusp of being added in to that category too. This is done for one simple reason. People are highly suggestible and no matter what the consequences or absence of any rational benefit, given the right persuasion, we will buy ANYTHING. Dare I suggest that if enough money were offered to Victoria Beckham to sport a Gucci tea pot on her head for a couple of days in the public eye that sales in Gucci tea pots would rocket?

We'll buy anything. Tat. Rubbish. We'll use our scarce capital resources on purchases that add no real value to our lives, and when the money runs out, we'll borrow more. On the one hand there's the argument that money makes the world go round, and another that says anyone who is too weak to withstand the pressure of advertising deserves all they get, but what's the cost? We're continually looking at ways of treating the symptoms at the tail end of the process, "pay as you throw" taxes for instance, but what if we just had less to throw? Would the world come to a standstill if we regulated the advertising of absolute crap?

Just think of all that extra cupboard space we'd all have