I was at the cinema the other night (the new Indiana Jones) and I’m one of those people who actually likes the ads they show before the trailers. To me, it’s all part of the cinema going experience along with the retro Pearl and Dean music. Generally the ads have high production values and look brilliant on the big screen. My ultimate favourite being the Guinness surfing ad, which just looked amazing projected onto a screen 30 x 70 foot. You could see detail you never would on the telly.

However I was sorely disappointed by the quality of the ads recently. None of them made any sense. I wasn’t alone in my estimation, we were a group of four media savvy people. Two journalists, one TV editor and me and unprompted, everyone agreed that the BBC Radio 1 ad was stupid, annoying and too long. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the one with the DJs standing in a black room talking about the kind of music they like. This was followed by the new Cadbury ad with The Queen soundtrack, shot at great expense on an airport runway. Both of these ads have high production values and cost a lot but in my opinion, are just pointless.

Then, there was a stupid ad for Lynx and one for Impulse about a commitment-phobe bloke who was willing to commit to a second weekend and how “these are hard times for Romance.”

For me, the problem with all of these ads was that they didn't truly say anything about their brand. They were all trying too hard to be clever and off the wall.

Admittedly I do remember them but mainly because I was so annoyed by them. I got to wondering if maybe ads aren’t as good as they used to be. Remember the KitKat one with the pandas, the Oxo ones? The old style PG Tips? These are all ads which have standout but say something about the product.

So, do you agree? Have ads got sillier?

Niamh Neville