Opening the front gate to take the dog for her walk the other morning, I stepped on this piece of cardboard and my and first thought was “the little devil she’s been out and dragged someone’s mat back from …” (we have lost a couple ourselves) But then I realised, this is cardboard, right, and it’s printed with doormat print, foot print and some advertising spiel – for one of those youghurt products that are supposed to put the right bacteria into your alimentary system.

Every front gate we passed on our walk that morning had one neatly placed just inside the gate – someone had been very busy overnight in the neighbourhood.

So is this effective advertising? It is a bit witty, telling us to put our right fooot forward every day with this stuff. But even well before 7am, next door’s dog had already half destroyed theirs … labour costs here permit this kind of ‘leaflet drop’ and advertisers are very keen on personally delivered advertising stuff. Another favourite is handing out leaflets at traffic lights, or little catalogues or passing you specials and discount coupons at the toll plazas on the highways; and you either love or loathe the stickers that are routinely plastered over your car window as it is parked in a carpark somewhere along the resort coast between here and Punta del Este. They don’t always come off easily and some times the whole back window seems almost obscured … but the practice persists. I think it’s more pollution than good advertising, and with that frame of mind, on principle I wouldn’t try this product – and anyway I’m happy with my own preferred brand, regardless of whether I am getting the ‘right bactieria’ into my system, or not.