EVERY so often I notice one of the advertisements on television and the name of the product registers with me.

This is not a regular occurrence and I suspect that most of my fellow citizens have a similar glaze button fitted in their brains.

But I did note the bright and breezy promotion of the Vauxhall Corsa accompanied by a tune far too modern for the likes of me.

We are exhorted to "put the fun back into driving" and encouraged to believe that this includes wedging your proud new purchase on its side in narrow alleys and driving it into skips and harbours.

This may well be fun if you are a car thief, but I doubt whether the attraction is as great for anybody who has to cope with the financial realities of ownership and maintenance. Come to think of it, driving any sort of car on UK roads and motorways is rarely fun at all. But you would not know this from glossy and expensive advertisements which show desirable vehicles streaking through exotic desert locations or zooming about in deserted city centres.

Should you succumb to the message, you are more likely to be stuck on the M6 near Birmingham with little to do other than hear Sally Traffic on Radio 2 tell you that things are far worse on the M 25. Driving into a skip would be a welcome diversion, you might feel.

Television advertising is a vital component of modern life, of course, but there are signs that viewers are less willing to take notice.

In our household, for instance, the "whizz it on" button (fast forward) helps videoed TV dramas maintain momentum if the advertisements can be dispensed with. It was a complete pain recently watching nearly 40 ads -- I counted -- during a two-hour episode of Frost which we saw live.

Over in America, the major networks are taking legal action against the makers of devices which allow viewers to skip adverts. Not surprisingly, this potentially successful innovation is not very popular with television companies or the advertisers who pay mega-bucks to bombard people in their own homes. One channel has decided to respond to the threat by scrapping the advertising breaks and blending the message into the programme instead. The theory is that people used to seeing paid-for product placement in films such as James Bond blockbusters will accept the same in telly programmes.

I feel sorry for the scriptwriters if David Jason and his fellow actors ever have to operate in such an environment. "OK, this is what we want," the boss might say to a bemused wordsmith.

"In between the murders, passion, chases and quirky stuff you need to link in four types of car (including one which drives into skips), puppies and toilet rolls, holidays in Wales, three wholesome breakfast cereals, Disney breaks, famous food retailers, credit cards, cough lozenges and several cures for blocked sinuses.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear what you say but the public will love it."

Maybe we should stick with the ad breaks.