PERHAPS animal rights activists should turn their protective instincts to commercial TV and radio audiences in the North-East who are subjected to people (usually promoting carpets) screaming into a microphone.

There is no way I would venture anywhere near the advertised stores in case I happened to meet the individuals concerned.

The programme directors should be locked in a room for an hour and forced to listen to each of these adverts repeatedly and see if they emerge similar to the gibbering idiots they are intending to foist onto their unsuspecting public.

Surely we deserve better quality than this, but the only thing we can do is reach for the off switch.

M Heslop, Billingham.