Pollution I work for an advertising company. It used to be known as "Directory Services", but moved into the advertising business many years ago when it first published a Yellow Pages. These days we serve up ads to millions of people.

This is kind of a problem for me because basically I hate advertising. I find it very hard to listen to commercial radio, I flip between channels when the ads come on, and I basically regard advertising as a kind of pollution. Visual & aural pollution. The thing that I really detest about advertising is that I have no choice in whether or not I get exposed to it. Advertising is everywhere. Even if I choose not to watch TV or listen to commercial radio, I'll still get a blizzard of messages on the tram, or as I walk down the street.

What really makes it worse though is that the reason we see ads in more and more places is because all the advertisers are competing for attention, and almost none of them actually make any difference. We're so saturated with advertising that we've learned to ignore it.

But here I am working for an advertising company. And I think we might be finding a way to cut back on all that stupid pollution.

Something we're experimenting with is targeted & requested advertisements - so if someone wants to buy a record-player (for example) they can request to have ads for record players sent to their email address or phone. This means that advertisers only spend money on ads that buyers want to see, and everyone else never has to see them at all. It's only a small start, but maybe smarter advertising will mean less advertising. And hopefully less pollution.  ¶ 8:30 AM