Bayer Corporation recently introduced a new product called Bayer Advanced Home Pest with Germ Killer. Now you can kill ants, roaches, ticks and other common home pests while at the same time reduce "99.9% of the Germs Bugs May Leave Behind."
Do the marketing geniuses at Bayer honestly believe that the world needs a new home insect killer that also kills common germs that are not even spread by insects in the first place?
Bayer seems to be banking on the assumption that consumers don't know the difference between insects and germs, praying on people's irrational fears of icky things that spread sickness. It's not by accident that product label uses the word "bugs" instead of insects. The word "bugs" multiple meanings, two of which are "insects pests" and "contagious illness."
The word "pest" derives from Middle English; pestilence, meaning “‘infected, unwholesome, noxious.’” Plagues, of course, are some of the more famous forms of pestilence. The Bubonic plague was spread by rats that carried fleas that were infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
Approximately 10-15 people in the U.S. per year contract the plague, according to the CDC. The majority of these infections stem from rats that are kept in the home, as pets.
Bayer Advanced Home Pest with Germ Killer does in fact kill fleas. However, it's worth mentioning that statistically the chances of you contracting the plague are
30,405,927.4 : 1
Bayer Advanced Home Pest with Germ Killer also "reduces" the germs Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter aerogenes.
Americans do have an ill-informed ideology about germs, this much is true. It's become fashionable to mock the fastidious as "clean freaks" as if following the guidelines of science to avoid communicable illness is obsessive.
So it may not be so outrageous, after all, that the Bayer Corporation stumbled upon the idea of combining bug spray and germ killer in one. Consumers may not have been asking for it outright but obviously those crafty market researchers on Madison Ave. have been able to confirm a "demand" for such a product as stupid as this one.
How much longer before insecticides start showing up in my shower gel?
Bayer seems to be banking on the assumption that consumers don't know the difference between insects and germs, praying on people's irrational fears of icky things that spread sickness. It's not by accident that product label uses the word "bugs" instead of insects. The word "bugs" multiple meanings, two of which are "insects pests" and "contagious illness."
The word "pest" derives from Middle English; pestilence, meaning “‘infected, unwholesome, noxious.’” Plagues, of course, are some of the more famous forms of pestilence. The Bubonic plague was spread by rats that carried fleas that were infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
Approximately 10-15 people in the U.S. per year contract the plague, according to the CDC. The majority of these infections stem from rats that are kept in the home, as pets.
Bayer Advanced Home Pest with Germ Killer does in fact kill fleas. However, it's worth mentioning that statistically the chances of you contracting the plague are
30,405,927.4 : 1
Bayer Advanced Home Pest with Germ Killer also "reduces" the germs Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter aerogenes.
Diseases caused by Staphylococcus aureas range from pimples to meningitis. Enterobacter aerogenes can cause opportunistic infections in open wounds and secondary gastro infections.
But neither Staphylococcus aureus or Enterobacter aerogenes are spread by insects!
In fact, both of these infection-causing germs are spread by humans, and as much as 20% of the human population are long term carriers, which means they host these germs indefinitely.But neither Staphylococcus aureus or Enterobacter aerogenes are spread by insects!
Americans do have an ill-informed ideology about germs, this much is true. It's become fashionable to mock the fastidious as "clean freaks" as if following the guidelines of science to avoid communicable illness is obsessive.
So it may not be so outrageous, after all, that the Bayer Corporation stumbled upon the idea of combining bug spray and germ killer in one. Consumers may not have been asking for it outright but obviously those crafty market researchers on Madison Ave. have been able to confirm a "demand" for such a product as stupid as this one.
How much longer before insecticides start showing up in my shower gel?
