“We are rapidly getting to the point where the single most important medium that people have is their wireless device,” says Robertson, with the sort of reasoning that makes one’s blood run cold. “It's with them every single moment of the day. It's genuinely the convergence box that everyone has been talking about for so many years.”

The fact that people pay a lot of money to use these devices, and many of them are likely to become very cross indeed if someone starts beaming ads at them doesn’t seem to have entered Robertson’s stream of consciousness.

Having just  released a report that reveals consumers are now more willing to live without television than without mobile phones or home computers – more than 60 per cent of respondents keep their phones on and within reach 21 to 24 hours a day – he’s convinced that provided the agencies can make the commercial intrusions “engaging”, they won’t mind taking a call from McDonalds or Pizza Hut. It might just be enough to drive us back to the TV.