By Brian Carnell

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Great Britain's Advertising Standards Authority recently criticized an absurd ad by the World Wildlife Fund which sought to stir up hysteria over man-made chemicals.

The advertisement showed a picture of a human fetus with the text,

The womb should be the safest place on earth. But today our bodies are contaminated with over 300 man-made chemicals, to which our great-grand parents were never exposed . . . Many of these pollutants are found in intensively farmed food or everyday products and some have been linked with birth defects in people and wildlife.

In a summary of the criticisms leveled at the ad by the Advertising Standards Authority, the BBC noted that,

The ASA judged that the advert misleadingly implied all 300 man-made chemicals could be found in individual humans rather than people in general.

It also criticised the WWF for implying these chemicals could cause health problems when this had not been proven.

I certainly hope the WWF follows up this ad with another pointing out all of the evil manmade substances, such as vaccines, antibiotics, and vitamin and nutrient-fortified foods that human beings are exposed to that our great-grand parents never were. Hmmm, but didn't our great-grandparents live in a world where infant mortality was far higher and life expectancy far shorter than it is today. Nah, couldn't be -- they must have been the perfect image of health given their lack of exposure to manmade chemicals.

Source:

WWF rapped for 'alarming' advert. The BBC, August 7, 2002.

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