Now, I’m all for people being given all the information they need to make informed choices, but does anyone else think that these Government information adverts are getting to be a little too much?

One night this week, within the space of a couple of hours I was treated to “infomercials” (horrible word) on everything from how not to smack your girlfriend to how not to get drunk.

All very worthy messages, but done in such a heavy-handed manner that they get to be a bit wearing after the second or third viewing, never mind when it gets into double figures in a single day.

Before anyone writes in to say that “David Barnett must be a drunken, chain-smoking, wife-beating ne’er-do-well”, I must stress that the messages behind the ads are all very laudable.

That obviously said, where’s the imagination in these Government information ads? Oh, they all look very slick and mostly “yoof-orientated” – there’s the one about pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases which has speech balloons in a variety of wacky fonts in the place of people having very reasonable discussions about chlamydia and having implants fitted.

And you can’t blame those who make the ads for going straight for the jugular, like the one where a load of children practically get down on their knees and beg their parents on camera not to smoke.

Perhaps the most objectionable one is the ad that features, again, lots of children, doing childreny things such as playing in parks and on computers. Then they turn to the camera and say things like: “In eight short years, I’ll be drinking 17 pints, vomiting over a taxi driver and spending three hours trying to get my key into the lock.”

To which we must say, yes, you might well be doing those things. Is this the way to stop children growing up into boozers and vomiters, though? What happened – and call me a traditional old fool if you must – to kids getting some kind of lessons in self-respect from their parents and guardians or, if need be, their teachers, without having to be prompted into it by an advert from the Government? And has any parent watched that particular ad and thought: “Hmm, yes, must take those Barbie dolls off my six-year-old for a minute and tell her not to do crack cocaine on her 18th birthday.”?

I’ve said it before in this very column, but I miss the Government information films of yore. Remember the classic “put a rug on a polished wooden floor? You might as well set a man trap”, said in a sneering voice? Or the kid running along a beach and the film freezing just as he’s about to step on a broken bottle? Or the spirit of deathly water spooking about near a lake?

The current ones just make me grit my teeth. Wonder if the Government’s got any advice on how to look after my ground-down molars?