Suggestions For Anti-Homeopathy Card Please

[H3LL]

I'm, unfortunately, a regular visitor to my local pharmacist.

Until quite recently it was one of a small number of independent pharmacies with excellent service and most definitely no woo (not even magnetic crap).

This has changed when they were bought by a much larger chain and , like Boots (http://www.boots.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?resultsSelect.y=12&langId=-1&Nr=AND(DIM_PREMIUM_BRAND_FLAG:N,DIM_PARENT_PRODUCT _ID:IS_PARENT)&Ntk=DIM_PARENT_CATEGORY_IDS&catalogId=11051&landId=-1&resultsSelect.x=12&categoryParentId=3884&Ne=13&Rpp=50&Ntt=4504&storeId=10052&Ntx=mode%2bmatchall&N=4294965704&categoryId=4504&st=category), have chosen cash in their pockets to other considerations and a nice little homoeopathy display has appeared, complete with little booklets.


There are other things I will be doing, but for now I had an idea and want your help.


As I visit regularly, it occurred to me that I can place a small collection of pre-printed business cards (easy to make at home) with some useful facts about homeopathy printed on them, maybe using both sides.


They are easy to carry in my pocket so useful when elsewhere.
Quick, simple and discrete enough to place easily.
Homeopathic display stands are perfectly designed to prominently prop half a dozen cards into the display.


They will get removed, I'm sure, but they will also get replaced. That I promise. If they deter just one person using homeopathy - My work is done.

What I need from you is content for the cards.

One side can be punchy and the other side a bit more detailed but it must be a sensible fit for a standard blank business card.

I'm crap at these sort of things so I'm relying upon the creativity of the members here.

I'll create another thread for voting after I have a number of suggestions.

You never know, little piles of cards might suddenly appear on homeopathy display stands all over the country. *Hint* *Hint* :D



.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

WARNING: these are just sugar pills and they don't work. You'd get just as much relief from a cup of tea and chatting to a friend. At least the tea is warming and quenches your thirst.

[H3LL]

As far as I got.

Side 1:
Homeopathy

They are NOT like herbal product

They contains NO active ingredients

Side 2:
Some facts:

Fact 1: ?????????????
Fact 2: ?????????????
Fact 3: ?????????????
Fact 4: ?????????????


For more info: http://www.homeowatch.org/




I particularly wanted to target those that may be attracted to 'alternative' products - but this is not the only way, I'm sure.



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[shawmutt]

One side says "the number of molecules of active ingredient in this product is represented by the number of black dots printed on the other side of this card"

Leave the other side blank.

[FireGarden]

That there is no active ingredient left in the 'remedy' is already widely known. Most people just suppose that it works through some other means -- water memory or some such rubbish. So:

There is no evidence that water can be trained to heal.



There are cheaper placebos

Smarties taste better

[H3LL]

Well, what seemed like a good idea early in the morning is seemingly not so in the cold, hard light of day.

Thanks for the contributions so far but lack of response (130+ views) would seem to indicate that it was yet another dumb idea from me.

Oh well.

:D

.

[Ivor the Engineer]

Not dumb, just difficult to fit a message which will have the desired effect. I made some suggestions here (http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php?p=4617264&postcount=74), but I think most of them would not fit on a business card.

[shuttlt]

Lots of 'homeopathic' products do contain active ingredients. I read through some homeopathic vaccine ingredients not so long ago. They contained all sorts of good stuff at 3X dilution. If only vaccine manufacturers could join forces with homeopaths to use 'homeopathic' mercury and 'homeopathic' inactivated pathogens, all would be well.

There is a huge amount of confusion about homeopathy. I have talked to people who say it works and think 30C means a 30:1 solution. This leads people to believe that homeopathy is just a kind of herbalism and that horrid old Big Pharma is saying herbalism can't possibly work. You then have the reverse problem of people believing homeopathy is safe because there are no active ingredients in it, even though sometimes there are, because it IS actually herbalism.

[Mojo]

Lots of 'homeopathic' products do contain active ingredients. I read through some homeopathic vaccine ingredients not so long ago. They contained all sorts of good stuff at 3X dilution.


This depends to some extent on what country you're in. In the UK, for example, the rules under which most homoeopathic products are marketed state that the product has to be sufficiently dilute to ensure that it has no effects safety.

[shuttlt]

How about

"30C means, one part active ingredient to 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000 parts water, of which one drop is dropped onto these sugar pills."

or

"The contents of this bottle cost less than a cent/penny/whatever (I assume it's something similarly low) to manufacture."

or

"For years now there has been $1,000,000 reward to anyone who can show these products do anything at all. Claim NOW before time runs out!"

[shuttlt]

This depends to some extent on what country you're in. In the UK, for example, the rules under which most homoeopathic products are marketed state that the product has to be sufficiently dilute to ensure that it has no effects safety.
True. That should definately cover anything bought from the chemist. I still think it is a factor in peoples general confusion. Also, people will insist on buying on the internet what The Man won't let them buy on the high street.

[mazyloron]

I think this is a great idea! sadly I am not the most creative, but I liked shuttlt's suggestions.

I would be tempted to include some sort of snarky tagline on the bottom, along the lines of: "Homeopathy: The more dilute the solution, the greater the effect. So we recommend not taking any at all, for the greatest possible effect!"

[H3LL]

Thanks for the kind comments.

I was worried that the thread was going homeopathic. :D

It is hard to come up with something snappy - Maybe just any relevant comments and we can slim them down later.

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[Mojo]

It is hard to come up with something snappy...


How about: First, do no harm.
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Profit!

[Yuri Nalyssus]

Well, what seemed like a good idea early in the morning is seemingly not so in the cold, hard light of day.

Thanks for the contributions so far but lack of response (130+ views) would seem to indicate that it was yet another dumb idea from me.

Oh well.

:D

.
I think this discussion may have been a bit eclipsed by the 'Help with an anti-alternative medicine project' (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=139847) one which contained a very similar idea and appeared just prior to this one. There have been some interesting ideas on it, you might find some helpful.

Two things came to mind when I read your idea - one was the main limitations of people's ideas about homeopathy is that most people will assume there is some sort of active ingredient in it - just telling them it's water/sugar/alcohol and nothing else would be a good thing to achieve.

The second idea was - what on earth are you going to do with these cards? You can't put them in the pharmacist's shop cos they'll just get rid of them and pretty soon they'll work out who's doing it and chuck you out or arrest you or something. The anti-alt med thread was about putting leaflets in doctors' waiting rooms but smuggling cards onto a commercial premises trying to make a profit from selling CAM is another thing altogether.

I just can't see where your cards would fit in :confused:.

Yuri

[Eos of the Eons]

People have been posting a great debate in the comments section here:
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/04/14/homeopathic-remedy-cancer.html

There are some facts mixed in with the usual defenses.

[rlr]

When it comes to establishments that sell both homeopathic remedies on the shelf, and also candy, the thing to do becomes clear.

Switch them. Put the homeopathic stuff in the candy aisle and put some candy in the homeopathic remedy spot.

Then leave a sign explaining that all you did was switch the packaging, not the contents.

[H3LL]

I've subscribed to the threads linked.

I'll keep an eye on them.

Thanks.