I’m writing this while wearing a white lab coat. I picked it up at a yard sale a few years back thinking it might come in handy someday. And it did. Keep that image in mind as you read on.
As we’ve been programmed to think, from watching TV commercials, people in lab coats are the most credible people alive. The sellers of drugs, medical devices, weight reduction plans and the like know that their credibility goes way up when the actor making the pitch is wearing a lab coat, especially when there is a stethoscope around their neck. It makes it much easier to peddle the swamp-root and snake oil they are pitching.
First we get the lab coat routine; then we get to see the results. Happy, smiling beautiful people who are laughing, dancing, swimming, sailing, hiking or just prancing around with a blissful look on their faces and a well-groomed golden retriever at their side. Beautiful music plays in the background as the happy people cavort and a sweet voice lists the side effects, the horrible side effects, which may come our way if we use the snake oil.
Those warnings go right over our heads; none of the people in the ads seem to have any side effects. I guess we won’t either, so we put aside our skepticism. We totally forget the advice we were taught growing up: if something sounds too good to be true; it is.
I apologize for writing this in my lab coat, but it’s the only way I might have enough credibility to get my message across. Unchained Melody is playing in the background, to accompany my typing. Can’t you just hear it? Life is wonderful.
Just buy my book, “Mystery on South Mountain,” available on Amazon Kindle, and read away. There will be no side effects, except for the withdrawal from your wallet of $2.99.
Comments? Complaints? Send to mlessler7@gmail.com.
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