Let’s leave the debate whether chilli chocolate, onion bhaji and creole squirrel are good ideas for crisp flavours to one side for a second. I saw an advert last night for this new batch of crazy Walkers Crisps and, once I queried the whole radical crisp flavour thing, I found myself asking: “Why is Gary Lineker still advertising crisps?”

Granted, the question of why Lineker is still earning a fortune advertising fatty, salty snack foods will not be raised in Prime Minister’s question time. Barack Obama will not make answering this question a priority during the remainder of his first 100 days in office. No, this is just a personal thing; a question that left me scratching my head after seeing a Walkers Crisps advert.

The advert I saw was for onion bhaji crisps. Haven’t tried them yet, but they sound a bit horrible (real onion bhajis, however, are ding daggedy tasty). Towards the end of all the predictable Bollywood-style dancing about, Lineker appeared and, as is his want in these kind of things, nicked the packet.

Why though? Why do you need Lineker to do this? Isn’t it enough to have your Bollywood dancing (or whatever it is you do to advertise a new flavour these days) without the presence of a sports presenter adding another layer of weirdness to your advert? Obviously not.

I struggled to remember what the point of having Lineker advertising crisps was in the first place. Ah yes. He’s Mr Nice Guy. Let’s have him hamming it up as a pantomime villain and stealing crisps. Yes! Because these crisps are so tasty they drive even really nice blokes to theft. Not only is this ex-sportsman, who should know the virtues of healthy eating advertising obesity-fuelling snack food, but he’s also encouraging people to steal.

Erm, anyway. Where was I? Yes. These new adverts. Once upon a time the whole Lineker turns Mr Nasty thing was at the heart of Walkers adverts, now he just makes an unannounced cursory appearance at the end of each advert. Why? You don’t need Lineker, you have enough bells and whistles to sell your crisps. And isn’t it a bit humiliating for him too? Knowing that you’re just an addendum to a new ad campaign?