Yo, Smokey Bear-
Chill Pills- Take as Needed
Posted on 01/24/2003 6:24:14 PM PST by HAL9000
Inopportune publicity for laxative
25/01 03:04 The persons in charge for the famous national park of Yellowstone (Wyoming, west) foam since televisions repeat a commercial showing a guard of the park discreetly pouring a laxative in the famous geyser "Old Faithful" to regularize its eruptions.
They reproach the originators of this "pub", realized on behalf of the giant group Procter and Gamble, to endanger years of efforts to discourage from the tourists throwing the most various objects in the many geysers of this national park, oldest and one of most splendid of the United States.
"Old Faithfull" (the faithful old man) is one of great attractions and it attracts each year several million tourists.
"This publicity east can be amusing, but its message is also likely to encourage people to devote itself to acts against which we fight for a very long time. There are people who throw anything in the geysers, including in Old Faithfull, at the point sometimes to block them ", explains the spokesman of the park, Al Nash.
It indicated that the direction of the park had had "friendly" explanations with Procter and Gamble, the manufacturer of the offensive laxative, but that this business for the moment was not regulated yet.
Park Service Steamed Over Geyser Ad
CHEYENNE, Wyo., Jan. 24, 2003 - (AP) The National Park Service is fuming over a commercial in which a park ranger pours a glass of Metamucil into Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park to help the geyser stay regular.
Park Service officials scoff at the notion the famous geyser would ever need help, and point out the damage that can be caused by dumping things into the park's thermal features ? not to mention that venturing near geysers and hot springs is often very dangerous.
"It suggests that it's OK to pour some substance into a thermal feature," Park Service spokesman Al Nash said. "We've spent decades trying to educate visitors about the fact that it's harmful to the feature and that it's dangerous for anyone to take an action like that."
Metamucil's manufacturer, Procter & Gamble Co., suggests Old Faithful's guardians lighten up a bit.
"It was pretty over the top," said Greg Allgood, associate director of the company's Health Sciences Institute. "Anybody would get it. It was a joke."
Allgood has proposed resolving the dispute by adding subtext to the commercial that says all Yellowstone visitors should obey the park rules. As of Thursday he was waiting to hear a response from the Park Service.
In the ad, a woman asks a ranger why Old Faithful is so predictably regular. The ad flashes back to the ranger pouring in Metamucil earlier in the day and the ad concludes ? naturally ? with an impressive eruption.
"We tested the commercial with consumers and got some very favorable responses," Allgood said. He said Procter & Gamble wants to keep using it.
The commercial was created last year by the international marketing firm Publicis. No filming took place in Yellowstone and the commercial did not involve a real ranger.
Allgood, who as a graduate student studied the bacteria in Yellowstone's hot springs, said he understands the reasons for the rules against approaching Yellowstone's thermal features. "I have a love of Yellowstone and don't want them to do that," he said.
Although warnings are conspicuously posted around Yellowstone's accessible thermal features, careless people are badly burned in the park almost every year.
In 2001, a man scalded his arms trying to rescue the family dog after it bolted from a motor home and jumped in a thermal pool. In 2000, a summer employee was killed and two others were severely burned when they jumped into a thermal pool thinking it was not especially hot.
Park officials also are interested in preserving Yellowstone's unique features, noting that hot springs and geysers have been damaged by tampering and vandalism.
One is the Morning Glory Pool, which was once a brilliant blue.
"People have thrown things into that pool, which has changed the pool and has cooled it down where it is no longer that beautiful morning glory color," said Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews.
Even at Old Faithful, visitors in the 1870s would drop in branches and stones and watch them be fired out as the geyser erupted. Such activity was one reason the U.S. Army took over management of Yellowstone in 1886, according to Matthews.
Geysers typically erupt when cool groundwater flows downward and piles on top of a pocket of superheated groundwater. Steam builds up to the point where it eventually explodes upward like a pressure cooker.
Old Faithful is not as regular as many believe. It erupts every 45 minutes to two hours, on average every 92 minutes. Park rangers predict an eruption based on the height of the previous eruption and are usually able to do so within 10 minutes.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Metamucil, send Al a case. His "feature" is about to blow!
Yo, Smokey Bear-
Chill Pills- Take as Needed
Too easy.
If every communist in the world can protest the U.S. and it allies for going to war and wiping out an evil man like maddman hussan then the people have the right to protest an ignorant commercialization of a product and a blowhole!
I say more power to them at least their not marching on washington because the hate our country . Like the supposed millions of idiots around the world
They could piggyback an ad for Durex condoms on it, too....
Is English this spokesman's first language?
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