Warming for swimmers in new ad tide

The onward march of the advertising medium is unstoppable, as we all know. Down toilets, on eggs, on satellites orbiting the globe, wherever there is a blank space, advertisers will find a message to fill it.

The latest medium encountered by the Diary is pool-side advertising. At the Diary’s local Clapham swimming pool in, er, Clapham, six-sheet poster ads for such warming beverages as Batchelor’s Cup-a-Soup have started appearing at the side of the pool.

But this could be dangerous. The Diary had just strapped on some water wings and was splashing about in the shallow end (Diaries love anything shallow) when the eye-catching poster caught our eye. It can prove highly distracting for the serious swimmer.

Suppose it had been the Wonderbra “Hello, Boys” ad, or one of those shocking Benetton posters? The first drowning by advertising is, no doubt, not far away.