IT IS a theory of popular culture that the amount of information you store about a specific song is in direct relation to how much you actually enjoy the ditty.

Which is probably why a friend and I recently joined forces to recite and sing the entire theme tune to The Beverly Hillbillies, a hit American TV show from the Sixties, and why I can still recall the lyrics to Mr Ed, a comedy show from the same period about a talking horse.

The trouble is, this theory is also applicable to television adverts, although in reverse as it’s so the most irritating that stick so doggedly in the mind.

For my generation, Shake ‘n’ Vac really did put the freshness back, we honestly rushed to buy the world a Coke and for mash, we just had to get Smash.

But that’s the Holy Grail for advertising executives, the creation of something that glues itself to the roof of your brain and refuses to leave, however much it annoys or irritates.

And that’s why our mums rushed out and made those products best sellers.

That the GoCompare advert has again topped the list of most irritating ads comes as no surprise, but looking at that top ten list, you start to wonder just how many peiople are so completely turned off by the adverts that they consciously or subconsciously vow never to darken the product’s websites or heed their sales pitch.

Certainly the moonpig.com greetings cards adverts worked for me. A regular buyer, I stopped using the company the moment I saw the ad and if I could buy any car, it certainly would never be via webuyanycar.com.

But you know when an ad campaign really has hit the heights with a best-selling book telling the life story of its hero... a Russian meerkat...