Parents teach their childfren to avoid strangers: not to talk with them, not to accept candy from them, and not to get into a car with them. Why? As a safety precaution.
I just read a two-page ad in a fashion magazine for a weight-loss pill. No discussion of the ingredients, no mention of "side effects." Just "you take two capsules before meals... you lose weight... it's that simple." And then "what have you got to lose?"
This kind of advertising must succeed in selling those red pills. But why? What happened to the adult caution which was taught to us in childhood? In this age of 24x7 information-news how could we fail to connect the dots between the "side effects" of modern foods, drugs, and industrial chemicals and the likely danger lurking in diet pills?
Will we ever learn caution?
Written: 5-27-2008.