26 March 2008

truth in advertising...

There are federal and state laws about truth in advertising in order to protect consumers. Just recently the courts ordered a company to stop pushing a product that promises to stop the common cold* or at least make its symptoms last shorter than normal to stop making claims and fined them $23 million. So the government takes these things seriously.

There is one company in particular that uses a gecko as its main spokes, umm, animal. I'm not going to mention the name of the company, but I know for certain everyone who has seen the commercials knows of which I'm speaking.

Well, here's the problem. The gecko used in the commercial is male. This gecko has an Australian or New Zealand accent. The problem is that almost ALL south Pacific geckos are female!

They reproduce asexually almost as a clone of themselves. Neat and clean. Every several generations they produce males to prevent genetic contamination and impurities. It's an automatic built-in safeguard created by evolution.

So, next time you see the company's commercial, just remember that they may not be telling the entire truth about other things either.

gecko.jpg


If you're interested in more of this, look into Joan Roughgarden's book Evolution's Rainbow. There are lots of amazing facts in her book about gender identity and sexuality in different species that blow holes into the christianist's beliefs.

Oh, by the way, Professor Roughgarden's name was originally Jonathan. She has taught at Stanford University since 1972 doing research on links between ecology with economic theory. She has also written on the relationship between Christianity and science.



*on colds, there is no cure for them. one just has to ride them out. the general thinking is that it takes three days to get the cold, three days with the cold, and three days to get rid of the cold. the only promising thing that may lessen a cold's symptoms is the use of zinc. i mean even my doctor, whom I respect greatly, has told me to use it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How interesting. I didn't know this about Geckos.