Farmers' Market(ing)

There’s an oft-quoted figure (that I can’t find after a cursory few minutes’ Googling) that the average person is exposed to X-thousand marketing messages every day. Everywhere you look there are people advertising their wares through a variety of media, from billboards to sandwich boards, small-screen to big-screen (and back again to the tiny screens on mobile phones), and the usual glut of printed media, etc.

When living in London, my daily journey to work probably contained a healthy proportion of these as I encountered a multitude of ads on Tube trains, station platforms, copies of Metro, clothing and bag logos etc.

Nowadays however, in a refreshing departure from this bombardment, if you discount the local Texaco garage and whatever manufacturer’s emblem happens to be stuck onto the rear of the car in front of me, the number of marketing messages I encounter on my journey to work totals nine. These are (in order):

Shooting Supplies
Mr Chips
Farm Shop
Wilja Potatoes
Tack Shop Now Open
OPEN 4 B’EASTS – I think it actually says “B’FASTS” (breakfasts) but the eyes play tricks
Estima Potatoes £7
Boot Sale
Tea Rooms

You know you’re in the country when the amount of adverts you encounter on your journey to work is less than double figures, and two of them are for different varieties of spud.