Fans of Russian novels will appreciate the analogy Harold Meyerson used to explain why the online publication he works for, The American Prospect, has stopped running those annoying programmatic ads that interrupt the flow of website content:

Let’s say you’re reading The Brothers Karamazov and wondering if Ivan will silently decide to let his illegitimate half-brother knock off their horrible old man. It’s gripping stuff, Dostoevsky is ratcheting up the tension, and the last thing you’d want is to turn the page and encounter an ad for a big sale on samovars. You don’t want a samovar, you don’t need a samovar and, what’s worse, the tale that Dostoyevsky has so brilliantly spun has abruptly ground to a halt.

Meyerson and a few other online publications are swimming against the tide. The corporate advertising machine is polluting the Internet as thoroughly as it polluted other mediums, especially TV. You’re trying to watch a news show. You don’t want a weight-loss drug, you don’t need a weight-loss drug, but the machine pitches it anyway because some other TV watchers will jump at the chance to buy it, even after the pitchman lists the drug’s potentially gruesome side effects. And then there are ten more ads to sit through before the news show resumes.

“So what are you raving about?” my neighbor Swamp Rabbit shouted from his front porch. “Everything’s for sale — junk food, booze, cars, hair-grow pills. Why single out weight-loss drugs?”

I was about to answer but Victor Cortez, Swamp Rabbit’s parole officer, beat me to it. He said drug ads are the worst. Pharma companies are creating drugs for every malady known to Man. They’re running out of goofy names for new drugs, there are so many of them. They’re making big money, and the TV overlords get a cut of the profits.

“It used to be that pharma sent good looking women to sell drugs directly to doctors at their offices,” Victor explained. “Now it’s all done remotely. The peddlers know which TV shows the old folks watch and they snow them under with drug ads. Then the old folks ask the doctors to score for them.”

“But you’re right, pharma is just the tip of the iceberg,” he added. “Junk food companies target kids’ shows. Football fans are bombarded with beer and cars and erectile dysfunction. Women’s shows push underwear and perfume — and weight-loss drugs, of course. Product placement was always important, but it’s a science in the AI age.”

“The science of constant distraction from anything that might hold our attention and compel us to think,” I said. “It’s called consumerism. Its practitioners rule the world.”

“I’m thinking of the movie Network,” I added. “The part where Harold Beale warns the audience to turn off their TV sets.”

Swamp Rabbit, who’d been silent, suddenly spoke up. “I don’t know about TV, but that book where the half-brother kills the old man is really long. A couple ads wouldn’t spoil it.”