The questions were broached in a tender way. Would he prefer to be removed from ads focused on Father's Day? They were posed online by retailers selling coffee and men's grooming products, as well as by restaurants, companies from which my husband regularly purchases products.

Had I received similar notes? he asked in a casual conversation. Indeed, my computer's junk-mail folder held proof that I had, although they hadn't registered in my emotional, intellectual, or consumer-brain landscape. I did not remember getting any such notices around Mother's Day and wondered why.

Curious, I took my ques: n to the hive mind of Facebook: Are advertisers expressing genuine concern for the emotional well-being of their patrons by allowing then to avoid possibly traumatic memories or simple psychological uneasiness around specific holidays?

In other words, is it wise, healthy, smart, and in everybody's interest to decline to see what might make you uncomfortable?

If it's not in everyone's best interest, then who profits? As the old Latin phrase would put it, "cui bono?"

Many of the respondents to my questions were enthusiastic about the opt-out feature. Eileen Scully, a SheSource Expert at Women's Media Center, argued that "Whatever brand manager or comms person decided to give us an opt-out of the forced, cringey 'everyone has loving uncomplicated families but you' messaging deserves a promotion."

Scully's comment pinpoints the stimulus for the recent tide of opt-out advertising as "How a Simple Opt-Out Email........

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