One would have thought that drug companies ought to be among the most precise and accurate with the wording of their advertisements. Apparently, some are not.
This new "wonder drug" is probably not truly an example of familial status discrimination, but in a science fiction setting where the goal of a pharmocracy might be to reduce the human population, one might deny certain medicines to those who procreate. Conversely, on a human colony where fertility might be important, there might be steroid-like drugs given to non-reproducing workers (like ants or bees) which (drugs) would not be suitable for family members.
Either scenario reminds me of The Time Machine where humans split into different species, one predatory. Another interesting read is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, where predators "converge" to look more like their prey.
To return to the advertisement, the complete wording is something like, "Not for people with diabetes or children."
Grammatically, the "for people with" applies to both "diabetes" and "children". There is also an insinuation that children are not people.
It would probably have been better expressed as, "Not for children, nor for people with diabetes," or "Not for people with diabetes, nor for children."
Are sloppily-worded advertisements a symptom, or a small part of the cause of the decline in intelligence that has been noticed recently? By the way, pys.org is a great site with lots of grist for the intellectual mill.
All the best,
Rowena Cherry
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment