I can still recall the moment I realized the degree to which my brain had been rewired by advertising. I was speaking with a friend, and though I no longer recall the subject of our conversation, they began to say, “No little….” In a flash, a voice in my head exploded: “... cinnamon gum freshens breath longer than Big Red .” I didn’t just register the phrase; I heard it, experienced every peak and valley of the classic voiceover’s undulating cadence. It was like a psychic autocomplete function: 10 words that had blanketed the Saturday morning cartoons of my childhood so fully that they were now imprinted into my subconscious and called up by the slightest trigger.

If they’re reading, the Avalanches may be nodding sagely. The Australian group (Robbie Chater, Tony Di Blasi, and Andy Szekeres) has spent its career tending to the earworms that burrow through our minds, growing verdant gardens out of musical compost.…