For some time now an advertisement has been running on television.

It’s that one for the automatic soap dispenser, made by Dettol or Lysol or whatever they call themselves.

I found this on YouTube which very nicely [though unintentionally] shows just how complicated and fiddly it is in comparison to a bar of soap –

The concept is simple enough – the dispenser detects your hand under the spout and it has a wee orgasm and deposits a glob of soap [or I hope it’s soap] into your hand.  Quite clever.  Clever, that is until you think about it.

There are three ways of getting soap onto your hands. 

You can pick up a bar of soap, wet it and rub your hands with it.  The very essence of simplicity.  When the soap becomes too matted with pubic hairs you chuck it out an start a new one.

The second method is by using a soap pump, where you press the plunger and out comes [cums?] a glob of goo.  Again, a very simple method.  It has the advantage of not getting matted with the old pubes and it doesn’t slide around so much.

The third method is the new one.  You don’t have to touch anything as the yoke does all the work.  It requires batteries [I presume], it delivers what it considers an appropriate amount which is probably more than you need, and you are stuck with getting refills for that particular dispenser.

Now I have no problem with Dettol [or Lysol] selling this device.  It’s a free world [but only just].  There is one thing about this advertisement though that strikes me as very sad.

Their selling point is that there are probably germs on the plunder of a standard dispenser.  The advertisements delight in showing little wriggly things that are presumably their concept of germs.  They of course bung in a load of children and the implication is that if you don’t have this pump, then you are neglecting your duties as a parent.

But let’s examine this a bit closer.  They say that the plungers are covered in germs, but what are you about to do next?  Yes.  You are going to wash your hands!  So it doesn’t matter a flying fuck if the plunger is covered in dog poo mixed with Angela Merkel’s sweat, because you are about to wash your hands anyway.  In other words, the whole purpose of the device is negated by its very existence.

So what do I find sad about this?

I find it infinitely sad that so many people can’t use a simple drop of logic and that they can be duped so easily into buying something that does nothing except make profits for the manufacturer.  I find it sad that people are so gullible that they will actually go out and buy it, presumably in the belief that they are saving their children’s lives.

Basically I just find it so sad that people will believe everything they see on the box, or read in the paper.

Truly a world full of sheeple.