A Really, REALLY Dumb Product - Proof that the days of the snake-oil salesman are by no means over...

I was shopping for weed killer the other day.  As I surveyed the shelves, my eye fell on a drab white bottle bearing the picture of a snake

Snake Repellent.  Yes, you read correctly...

Dumb on soooo many levels:

1.        Dumb on PRICE – the product is meant to be squirted around all perimeters threatened by snakes.  Tell me, how many bottles would you need?  This reminds me of the guy who, when asked why he was buying so many packets of mothballs, said: “because the moths fly so fast I keep missing them”.  But I digress.   “Snake Repel” retails at R60.99 a bottle – you do the math.  All I know is I’m more scared of spending that sort of money than I am of an angry Black Mamba!

2.       Dumb on PROPOSITION – how many people with R60.99 to splash are REALLY at risk from snakes? – And the few that are (farmers for example) are way more likely to stock up on a properly tested intravenous anti-venom

3.       Dumb on PACK – I mean, who is most likely to buy this product?  That’s right!  People who are &^%$* scared of snakes!  So why the pic of a nasty green boomslang on the bottle?

4.       Dumb on PRODUCT DELIVERY – thinking that this must be a joke, I Googled the product and discovered that....it doesn’t work!!!  In Feb 08, The Witness ran an article that totally discredited the product.  Tests done at Durban’s Fitzsimmons Snake Park showed that with both harmless and harmful snakes, the goo inside was about as innocuous as the stuff you used to guzzle from your mummy’s fun bags...

5.       Dumb on PLACE – bottom shelf, one facing...it even beats me why Pick n Pay would think to keep  such a product nearly two years after it has been debunked

To anyone considering the product...go adopt a family of mongooses instead.