Dear LPG,  

This is a bit of a cheat because I did not actually use a camera to take this picture.  I was reading one of the many and varied articles that are to be found on this LPG website when I came across what I found to be a really interesting mixture of information on my computer screen.  

The picture that I have submitted is not really a picture at all, it is called a screenshot and is a way of keeping a pictorial record of what is on the screen of any of the many electronic communication devices that so many of us have these days.

Clicking the links that so many LPG contributors leave below their messages is something that I have learned to do.  There is often quite a bit of valuable information to be learned that way.  I think that it is ingenious that one click or tap can take you to a page with added information to complement the subject matter that has been written about, and the fact that clicking will always bring up the same internet page every time another miracle of internet culture.  The only difference that will happen if you decide to return is that there will always be a different advert for your subconscious to take in while you study what you really came to see.

The one thing that can be guaranteed is that one advert or another will be somewhere on the web page along with the information that is offered.  I don’t know much about how the adverts are paired with the editorial content, but I thought it really ironic that they would pair a webpage intended to inform about a celebration to do with curbing your diet with an advert offering a relatively calorific way to curb a hunger pang.  

Please understand that I have eaten the odd subway meal and find them really good but the last thing they are is a good way of keeping the calories to a minimum.

Most of us now accept that all this advertising stuff is supposed to appeal to your subconscious mind so that when you happen to pass the shop in question, or feel the need for a home delivered snack, you will try one, like it and go back for more.  We also know that the occasional meal from any fast-food establishment will not destroy all those weeks of self-denial that so many of us put in, but I suspect that these adverts are electronically chosen.  

The conclusion has to be that computers don’t eat and A I has not yet been programmed well enough to appreciate the harm that could be done to a hard fought-for diet by such an advert pairing.

GA, Mottingham