What exactly do you mean by '...reset the thing'?

You can do a factory reset which will wipe all data and user apps and restore the phone to the condition it had when you first took it out of the box.

But as you apparently had this ad issue from since the phone was new, it is not likely to solve it.

Thanks. I might try that. What I find odd is that I did manage to find a way of disabling the ads but I am pretty sure that they returned after an OS update where I can no longer find a means to disable them.

In mine it is Settings/Back up and Reset. Obviously back your stuff up to something - mine is Samsung so I can use the clunk old Kies for a back up. Painful, but worth it. Then reset to factory settings.
Then, be very careful when you set up the phone from "new".

The big "but" is that Google just loves ferkin adverts, so might still sneak them in. Google, Apple and Farcebook appear to be in a race to "monetise" mobile things, and appear to me to take no prisoners.

Erm...

Google IS an advertising company ! As are Facebook. (Apple are not, I'm not sure where you got that one from other than your usual Apple bashing bull)

How do you think all the free stuff Facebook & Google provide is paid for ? There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Well I bit the bullet and did a factory rest. I also did not link the 'phone to my, little used, Google account after the reset.

It works fine with NO ADVERTS!

The downside was that the dreadful KIES software (Samsung's ghastly offering) didn't back up any downloaded apps which is no big deal.

It also solved another problem which had appeared after several months of use and that was that every address book entry downloaded twice to my car system whenever I got in the car resulting in the car's 'phone memory being full before all my contacts had been copied. It was something to do 'Connections' where a contact was shown with more than one 'Connection' whatever that means!

I consider myself fairly tech savvy but so much of the stuff that seems to be part of the Android system strike me as utter crap.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

For future ref I get a lot of answers in this forum

Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com