I lock the door when I see him coming. He at times has a crazed look in his eye and is unpredictable; unpredictable is what frightens me most. I visit that intersection often, and it is always the same, he makes a beeline to my clear, not tinted windows. I politely refuse to give him money that I suspect will fuel his drug habit. Then I pretend to ignore him by developing a new fascination with the handbrake or some other object, while anxiously anticipating the green light. The moments before that delightful green, seem long and uncomfortable. But now things have changed, some caring advertising guru has put up a television at this intersection, and now as this man peers anxiously at me, I can watch TV. Sounds almost like marriage!

If sales were directly linked to advertising there is no doubt that our GDP would be sky-high. A plethora of billboards, pendant flags, banners, bills on light posts, lit signs on light posts, advertising spots on safety and information signs as well as bus stops, wall murals with large logos and now huge TV screens seem to crowd out streets, creating an advertising junk heap. Yet, if you take note of some of this junk it makes an interestingcommentary on the social conscience of our business community and the Government.

A billboard depicts a young Jamaican boy dressed in khaki with a test on his desk. In red is a large fail mark, the ad encourages the boy to get more free text minutes using Digicel. I find this ad offensive, we have an education problem and young boys failing is a very serious matter, cellphones have nothing to do with the solution and more to do with the problem, and targeting the young in this way gives Digicel their very first fail mark in my book.

Defacement of our streets

Red Stripe and C&W appear as sponsors for events on the highly illegal boards that are stapled to the light posts. As a sponsor you wield enormous power over the promoters, including the power to stop this defacement of our streets. Phallic symbols and half naked women are advertisers' favourite tools; in the absence of imagination, sex is always an easy thing to sell. The private sector seem have missed the concept of quality over quantity, and in their efforts to outdo their competitors the streets have become a mass-marketing mess resonating only at the lowest level.

On the contrary, however, there have been stellar examples of advertising that have even uplifted our community. Both Digicel and Cable & Wireless have fine examples of this. There have been TV ads that bring goose bumps, press ads that make you think, and radio ads that make you laugh! Advertising can be positive and still push sales.

The public sector seems to have also taken to advertising with renewed enthusiasm, something I haven't noticed since the last election. A full page spread on the Ministry of Local Government, the NWA boasting their achievements and, of course, we have heard from the Ministry of Housing and the NHT as we did in 2002. Yet for me, I am less impressed with the stated achievements as I am annoyed by obvious use of taxpayer dollars for the purpose of election campaigning. Why are government agencies spending this kind of money in public relations? After all, we have JIS for that.

It is all very well and good to say that our country is the way it is because our population is uneducated and doesn't know better, but advertised on our streets and in our mainstream media is the fact the big business and Government, who are made up of highly educated people who know better, still just don't do the right thing. We are all just trying to make a buck, no matter what.