Oh no... Duffy gets on her bike in Diet Coke spot

It was in jest, but yeah in simple terms I think everyone lives a in a little bubble and the little bubbles come together to form a big bubble of reality. Anything outside of the bubble is largely irrelevant and everyone is responsible.

I suppose the problem is that you're not really defending advertising, you're just rejecting objective truth, absolute values, etc.

That's fine (as it happens I don't believe in objective truth or absolute values either), but the same, highly simplistic argument can be extended to defend anything. Maybe the consumer likes her broken Unipack, thanks to advertising?

*The chocolate ration has increased to 20 grams!

We've always been at war with Eastasia!*

As well as encouraging a culture of consumerism, your defence works equally well in justifying the planting of news stories by PR agencies and the propaganda of totalitarian regimes.

I'm going to include the words "reductio ad absurdum" here, because I want Oliver to post the exploding head thing again.