Pedantic Point

Published on 1 April 2006 in Life, charity, television

Heard on a TV advert yesterday for the Race for Life…

Everyone is affected by cancer. That’s why every woman should take part in the Race for Life

(Or words to that effect).

So lets get that straight. Everyone – that’s everyone, everyone one of us – is affected by cancer. Well I can’t really deny that. But then it’s saying that it’s a good enough reason for all women to go off and do a sponsored run.

This seems a rather twisted logic somehow. After all, if someone said "Everyone in a house has to put up with dirty dishes. That’s why every woman should wash the pots", we’d all (I hope) see the flaw in that statement.

Is washing the dishes just woman’s work? Is supporting cancer charities?

The Race for Life is – of course – a woman-only fundraising event, so you can kind of see what they were trying to do with the slogan, but one can’t help think that there are more articulate ways of wording their adverts in order to be… well less crap.