Jerry Wilson Over Coffee Appearing each Wednesday in the Edinburgh Courier, the weekly newspaper in Edinburgh, Indiana and periodically in Indiana's Daily Journal newspaper.

Would You Buy This?

Here’s a test for the consumer:

What if a salesman came to your door and made the following sales pitch. Would you buy his product?

“Hi there. I have a wonderful product for you to consider. Actually, I don’t know why you should consider it, but I couldn’t find a job so I thought I’d try selling this thing. Although it’s available in almost any store!

Unfortunately, it has absolutely no useful purpose. It won’t nourish your body, make you look better, clean your skin, hold your hair in place, make you smell better, entertain you, nor even give you an artificial high.”

“But wait; before you tell me to get lost, let me tell you more about this fine product.. It not only has no useful purpose that I can think of, it has some pretty nasty side effects if you use it. Yes, it is a carcinogen and it will probably give you heart disease, not to mention bad breath. It may cause birth defects in your children. And it will make you stink.”

“The price? Well it’s really not very affordable. It will cost you about $800 per year for the rest of your life. But, don’t worry, I guarantee it will make your life shorter!”

“So how about it? Do we have a deal? How many can I put you down for?”

If that salesman came to your door, would you buy his product, or throw him out?

If you smoke cigarettes, you have already bought it.

Copyright © 2001 by Jerry Wilson. Get permission to reprint this article.