Raise the Roof is a public service campaign, designed to increase the sale of toques. By putting a new hat on your head, you are contributing to a fund that puts a new roof over the heads of those who need it most. Good cause. Pretty good hat.

The spot playing on television uses a quirky sense of humour to capture a potential purchaser’s attention. A youngster with a cold sore on her mouth and eating a tuna sandwich and wearing a toque is in a laundromat. The woman she is with is doing laundry and sipping from a water container.  The woman shares the water bottle with the youngster who takes a sip, putting cold sore and stinky washback on the bottle’s neck.

Only last night I noticed a disclaimer t in the bottom right hand corner that stated – we should not share water bottles with people with cold sores. That was the straw that drove this camel back to WordPress. What has happened to the intelligence of our species that we need to tell people not to do stupid things when we make advertisements that are over the top?

Have you seen the Nissan ad, with Bobby Downey Jr. narrating? The one with the truck that snowboards down a mountainside. That was a creative way to demonstrate that the truck is rugged and fun. That ad has a disclaimer that states clearly that the truck cannot be used as a snowboard. Implied is the word stupid, or at least I finish the disclaimer every time I read it with stupid.

If the lawyers think that disclaimers are necessary that means that someone somewhere stupidly attempted the action they saw depicted. I guess we can’t blame the lawyers. I think, however, that the gene pool needs a thorough cleaning. Pool boy!