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Life is full of necessary evils, things which are often annoying (or worse) but which are vital to the continuation of our way of life. As our way of life is the pinnacle of human experience we tolerate these things for the most part, often because we're distracted by something shiny. The list of such evils is a long one. Government. Taxes. Trips to the Dentist. Condoms. Babies.

To this list I'd like to add advertising. Advertising is everywhere in our society: TV, radio, magazines, NASCAR, billboards, flyers, the Internet, urinals, trash cans, those guys who spin signs on street corners and much much more. And product placement. Lord, the product placement. Its everywhere, invading entertainment in all its forms. Most advertising is stupid, insulting, patronizing, unentertaining, ineffective or a combination of these things. Yet as much as we all hate it, it serves a vital purpose in its own way. Besides being a trillion dollar industry, advertising relays information crucial to our happiness, including which new shiny things we can now buy and where I might procure a footlong sandwich for a mere $5.

Most importantly, advertising pays for and advances much of what we love. I know that without advertising professional sports might not exist or at least would be vastly different from their current incarnation. In game ads pay for broadcasting of games around the world and pro sports could not survive without them. From a purist standpoint eliminating ads might actually be good for sports, as it would put more emphasis on the game itself rather than the business aspects of sport. But as a realist, one who loves being able to watch sports from around the world broadcast in HD from the comfort of my couch, I'm sure this change would drive me to drugs. Hard drugs.

The point of all this blabbering is the introduction of what I hope will be a running feature on this blog. Basically I'll be looking at ads I see in my life and critiquing them. How is this idea any different from the dozens of much better and funnier blogs which already do this? Shut up, that's how. To be clear, my goal isn't just to angrily rip into an ad every post. There will be plenty of that, but the truth is that some advertising is only mildly bad and could be improved with a sutble tweak or two. And, on rare occasion, some is even... good. So they'll be bile a plenty in this feature, but I'll try to include some actual analysis as well. Also, I have a great original name for this feature: Badvertising!

Hey, if I was really so clever I'd be the one getting paid big bucks to write stupid jingles for erection pills. Viva Badava!