You get on the Internet and instantly, you’ve entered the public forum. Within seconds, an uninvited advertisement pops up. It’s downright distracting. You click on the little “x” in the upper right corner to get rid of it, but another one pops right up in its place. The only way to prevent this distraction from happening is to pay for a premium, ad-free account.

If you’re as cheap as I am, you learn to live with it. Graffiti, by any other name. A useless blight on an otherwise perfectly pristine panorama.

Or is it?

I must confess, I have seen ads that actually make me smile, think, even consider the benefit of a product or service I may not have been considering before. These ads, whether they appear online, on a billboard, on TV, or in a magazine, have become part of our American landscape. We can take them or leave them. We can prevent them, through ad-free accounts. Or, we can fast-forward past them, using delayed recording technology. We don’t have to buy anything. We don’t even have to pay attention. We can always just turn the page.

But, every once in awhile, something there adds value. At the very least, it may be an amusing twist on a well-worn topic. Something that brightens your day. Insurance ads bend over backwards to give us a chuckle.

At best, it can be an answer to a real problem. A doorway into something that makes your life a little better. Mosquito repellent. Flu medication. Or a two-for-one pass to the Greatest Show on Earth.

As an advertising, branding, and marketing content writer, my goal is to provide a message that adds value. You may pass me by. You may dial in for more information. But either way, I take it as my personal responsibility to make your day a little nicer. Graffiti, plump with a worthwhile thought.