Most people in Malta have access to foreign television stations and there is one particular advert that really catches the attention.

It's based on people in rush hour, trying to get where they want to go, but not in cars - they are on foot. It is not an advert about curbing emissions in relation to carbon emissions and climate change - it is about road rage. The advert features people bumping into each other and cutting each other off, as they would do on the roads. It is effective because it shows us just how ridiculous our driving behaviour is when you take away the actual car.

Another very effective advert is one about domestic violence. It features two teenagers - a boy and a girl. The boy is abusive and the advert focuses on the boy's 'alter-ego' trying to scream at him to leave the girl alone. There is also another, featuring a hotch-potch of kids singing "I'd do anything for you, dear, anything" to their parents in an attempt to get them to stop smoking.

There are of course other drink-driving adverts that are meant to shock the audience into realizing just how dangerous it is to drink and drive. There are many positive adverts that come onto our screens and it is impossible to list them all, but they address issues such as drug abuse, domestic violence, smoking, salt intake, food allowances, alcohol…

This is all positive, no one can argue. But what we must understand is that in today's day and age, the programmes we receive are beamed from countries which are the most materialistic in the world and these include the US and the UK. As a consequence, we are also bombarded with advert upon advert to encourage people to gamble and bet online. There are hundreds of others that spew the message that credit is fine, it is available, and those are backed up by hundreds of other adverts that assure us that when we do go bust, we can simply consolidate our debts with a loan to make "one easy monthly repayment".

The truth is that adverts work differently on different people. While it is all positive in the first examples we made, we would have to say that the latter examples are not. We are in a curious situation where Maltese media cannot in any way or form advertise gambling or gambling products. Yet, it keeps on being regurgitated on our television screens. Adverts shown on television also use little tricks which are all designed to target our subconscious. In fact, legislation is being proposed on a European level to stop adverts from jumping up in volume when commercial breaks come round. The intent is obvious… it is to wake the person up if they have dozed off in their armchair.

The truth of the matter is that here in Malta, we concentrate on petty infringements by programmes who sometimes go a minute or two over the allotted commercial break. Adverts are also vetted for suitability. But it all seems a bit pointless when one considers the amount of promotional material that we are bombarded with from foreign stations. It really does seem that we have two realities in Malta. One set of rules for everything which is Maltese. And another reality where it's anything goes when it comes from abroad. It is indeed a very strange state of affairs and is something that should be addressed - even if for sake of uniformity.