Anyone who’s used Facebook over the sunny bank holiday weekend just passed will probably have seen an advert for Wall’s Cornetto in their timeline – a ‘suggested post’. A chum went into a spontaneous extended rant about how irritating they’d found this, even though it was just a picture of some ice creams along with a little pun. Thousands of people ‘liked’ this advert, but the comment trail attached to it also reveals a large number of people among the several thousand comments who find posts of this ilk intensely irritating. One person had a suggestion about where Wall’s could stick their Cornetto, another said: “AM SICK of these suggested pages even if I mark as spam this one returns time after time.” I find this really interesting, in terms of the different dynamics between ‘lean forward’ digital media consumption and ‘lean back’ consumption via something like a printed magazine. No doubt brand owners are wrestling with the pros and cons too. If this had been an ad for a Cornetto in a mag, I hardly imagine anybody would have objected to it so violently, or taken the trouble to actually make an unfavourable comment about it. My own bank holiday weekend involved some relaxed perusing of the Morrisons customer magazine, an appealing near-square format that is full of ads which I read with interest, not irritation. I also received the revamped Majestic Wine customer magazine on lovely tactile uncoated paper. The only annoying thing about it was discovering how much cheaper the wine is in Majestic Calais compared with its Brentford outlet. One of the many powers of print is its ability to involve the consumer without irritating them.