It isn’t often an essay comes along that confronts our accepted ideas about advertising with such eye-opening intelligence. This one quietly exploded a few weeks ago in the Financial Times. We didn’t want it to escape your notice. Is it true that the domination of advertising by technology has led to a world in which “no one knows what we do anymore”? Is digital advertising really the marketing miracle it’s been touted to be for the last 15 years? Do people really want to engage with your brand or do they actually have little interest in your brand at all? What accounts for the recent unexpected vitality of the TV ad?

UV exposure is a big issue for people, so beauty giant L’Oreal has disrupted the fashion and technology worlds by unveiling “My UV Patch.”

It’s a heart-shaped “stretchable sensor” with a one-inch diameter that can be worn on the skin anywhere and, with the help of your phone, can tell you how much UV exposure you are subject to at what times of day. It lasts five days and can be worn from the shower to the beach and then tossed.

The patch is the first of 10 wearable devices L’Oreal is making in partnership with Irish product engineering firm PCH. The techno-fashion statement was unveiled in Las Vegas at the International CES, the annual consumer electronics show.