I went to the US for the first time a few weeks ago, and even coming from the UK I was surprised by the pervasiveness and deep saturation of advertising. OK, T

I went to the US for the first time a few weeks ago, and even coming from the UK I was surprised by the pervasiveness and deep saturation of advertising. OK, Times Square is a special case, but it didn't seem to get much better elsewhere. Pretty much everything that could be held still for more than five minutes seemed to be sponsored, co-branded or had an advert stuck on it. I was surprised the pigeons didn't have little logos stuck on their wings. I just could not get my head around the TV ads for medicines. They were some of the most bizarre things I've ever seen, beyond parody. One advert had an elderly couple laughing, drinking wine and standing around on boats, while a voiceover quickly listed all the terrible side effects of taking it. For about three minutes.