FOR THOSE AMONG YOU PLANNING YOUR ANNUAL VISIT TO THE 2008 EDITION OF THE GREAT MINNESOTA GET-TOGETHER, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR, here's the latest on the Toyota Grandstand Series concert acts as have been confirmed to date (in chronological order):

• Thursday, 21 August @ 18h30: 3 Doors Down with special guests Staind and Hinder; tickets $32, $47 and $53, depending on location of seating. 
• Friday, 22 August @ 19h30: Brad Paisley with special guests Jewel, Chuck Wicks and Julianne Hough; tickets $45.
• Saturday, 23 August @ 19h30: Backstreet Boys with special guest Girlicious; tickets $29.
• Sunday, 24 August @ 19h: Jonny Lang and Buddy Guy with special guests Big Head Todd and The Monsters; tickets $35.
• Monday, 25 August @ 19h30: Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert; tickets $30.
• Tuesday, 26 August @ 18h30: Paramore with special guests Jack's Mannequin, Phantom Planet and Paper Route; tickets $31, on sale from 12h Saturday, 14 June.
• Wednesday, 27 August @ 19h30: Gnarls Barkley; tickets $30, on sale from 10h Saturday, 14 June.  
• Thursday, 28 August @ 19h30: Mark Schultz with special guests Big Daddy Weave and Lincoln Brewster; tickets $28.
• Friday, 29 August @ 20h: A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor; tickets $22 and $27, depending on location of seating, on sale from 10h Saturday, 7 June.
• Saturday, 30 August @ 19h30: The Black Crowes with special guest The Black Keys; tickets $37, on sale from 12h Saturday, 7 June.   
• Monday, 1 September (Labour Day) @ 19h30: Toby Keith with special guests Carter's Chord, Trailer Choir and Mica Roberts; tickets $50.

All shows will be followed by the traditional fireworks display (thanks to Miller Lite), weather permitting.

All tickets are reserved seating, and can be purchased through:

• the Minnesota State Fair Box Office (for telephone orders, mail-order instructions or further information, call [+1] 651-288-4427); or
• through Ticketmaster, as in:
  • Ticketmaster outlets throughout the Upper Midwestern states;
  • online @ www.ticketmaster.com; or
  • by calling (+1) 651-989-5151.

(N.B. All orders placed through Ticketmaster are subject to their usual convenience fees.)

They can also be had through your friendly neighbourhood ticket scalpers, so long as they operate outside the premi of the State Fairgrounds.

From Monday, 9 June, the Minnesota State Fair Box Office will be open weekdays (except the July 4th holiday) 12h-17h, and on Saturdays from 10h-14h. Enquiries or further questions can be directed as above.

As reminder, a separate Minnesota State Fair admission must be purchased for admission into any Grandstand show.

And the 2008 free entertainment lineup for TGMnGT has just been announced, encompassing seven stages throughout the State Fairgrounds with a selection of acts sure to please every taste. For the full details, click here. (BTW, those silly gophers, Fairchild and Fairborne, have  "meet-and-greet" sessions twice a day during TGMnGT in the Visitor Plaza @ shortly after 11h and 16h--just allow a few minootas for them to make their way. Be sure to bring your camera; they're rather photogenic, as I understand. And your autograph book.)

If you still have questions, visit TGMnGT's website or call them during business hours in UTC-5 @ (+1) 651-288-4400.

(As reminder, TGMnGT 2008 is 21 August through Labour Day, 1 September, inclusive.)  

6 weeks old

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IN YOUR CORRESPONDENT'S OWN CASE, IT SOMETIMES REQUIRES RESORTING TO SATIRE AND SUCHLIKE AS A WAY TO MAKE CLEAR THE POINT being addressed--a gift, perhaps, from the years of abuse and maltreatment which included attempts to use medications to silence any attempt @ independent thought.

Not exactly a Sixth Sense, but then again....

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CAN YOU IDENTIFY THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE WHOSE CAMPAIGN IS CLOAKED IN ALL MANNER OF APPEALS TO "DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION" AND "RESTORE FREEDOM" is actively pushing the following Proposed Constitutional Amendment towards such perceived ends (credit Down With Tyranny for the text thereof):

No person shall be a citizen of the United States unless he is a non-Hispanic white of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood, nor more than one-eighth Mongolian, Asian, Asia Minor, Middle Eastern, Semitic, Near Eastern, American Indian, Malay or other non-European or non-white blood, provided that Hispanic whites, defined as anyone with an Hispanic ancestor, may be citizens if, in addition to meeting the aforesaid ascertainable trace and percentage tests, they are in appearance indistinguishable from Americans whose ancestral home is in the British Isles or Northwestern Europe. Only citizens shall have the right and privilege to reside permanently in the United States.

Which reeks, does it not, with Nazi Germany's desire to create an "Aryan Master Race" as would reclaim German National Honour and Glory from the Allies' "stab-in-the-back" thereof following World War I?

Or, for that manner, apartheid South Africa seeing in apartheid the final achievement of Afrikaner Honour and Glory after years of "British repression" manifested in Die Voortrek through the wilderness from the Cape to the Highveldt, the gold and diamonds discoveries and the Boer War which (to the Afrikaner mindset) "sought to exterminate the proud Afrikaner and his right to self-determination and honour."

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AND SPEAKING OF "BRITISH REPRESSION"--OR, FOR THAT MATTER, "WESTERN REPRESSION"--Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been using that rather hackneyed platitude @ the current United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO; motto, Fiat Panis, "let there be bread") conference in Rome to shift blame from himself and his corrupt "inside of the inside" for Zimbabwe's ongoing socioeconomic crisis and hyperflation.

Wait a minute--doesn't the European Union (EU), of which Italy is one of the original six members (along with the Benelux states, France and Germany), have a ban on Mr. Mugabe's entering any EU member state by virtue of his association with terrorists or other Undesireable Elements? (Even if he has a diplomatic passport.)

Staying with the FAO conference for the moment, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon (no relation to the so-called "Reverend" Sun Myung Moon of the equally-so-called "Unification Church" and The Washington Times, hopefully) has called upon "developed" states (in particular the "morally superior" United States and the European Union) to scrap "counterproductive" subsidies for cereal grains intended for ersatz fuels and redivert cereal crops to impoverished nations facing food shortages and increasing prices for basic foodstuffs. (One solution Secretary-General Moon might want to recommend as a worthwhile ersatz fuels crop: Cultivating Jerusalem artichokes.)

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AS THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES SEASON CONCLUDETH WITH THE DEMOCRATIC SUCH IN MONTANA AND SOUTH DAKOTA TONIGHT, The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang is expected to go on live national FreeVee to launch his "campaign" (if you could properly call it such) and lay out his articles of faith.

Which, come to think of it, may have actually been cooked up in some smoke-filled room (locked all the while, and without any semblance of proper ventilation or filtration besides), and consisting of nothing more than carefully-scripted and -nuanced platitudes about "reclaiming American glory and honour," "ensuring complete and final victory" in the ur-RAHOWA on International Terrorism--in a nutshell, "staying the course" with the complacent waste, fraud, mismanagement and corruption of His Fraudulency's Great Within.

Viewers may want to be on the que vive throughout for The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang's lapsing into incoherence, telltale signs of nervous breakdowns or nerves, even unprovoked lapses into Billingsgate, as may be worth "swift-boating" him with.

*************

COULD IT BE THAT RUSSIAN PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV IS ACTUALLY SYMPATHETIC TO DEMOCRACY AND LIBERTY FOR ONCE, unlike his predecessor and close droog (and now Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin?

I say this in view of President Medvedev's vetoing legislation passed by the Russian Duma as would have allowed the authorities greater flexibility in shutting down media outlets (be they newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations or even weblogs) for suspected slander, libel or defamation; his contention was that such a concept was (and, come to think of it, is) detrimental to the best interests of democracy in a free and open society.

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MEANWHILE, IN HIS FRAUDULENCY'S NEWEST PUBLIC ENEMY #1 TO DEMOCRACY AND CHEAP OIL SUPPLIES, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS IRAN, the Cultural Ministry has imposed a six-day shutdown on the activities and operations of the quasi-official FARS news agency after its website published what was seen to be "false information" about the sacking of the Iranian Economics Minister.

In the interim, their website has not been updated in any way, shape or form.

But then again, conservative articles of faith towards the Lower Classes being nothing but fear, loathing and contempt thereof must seem to include a carefully-crafted, yet deliberate, programme of prolefeed in its purest and simplest form. As in nothing less than deliberately false, misleading or inaccurate news and information with an unhealthy emphasis, for the most part, on sport, crime, astrology and celebrity gossip, with the requisite "nutritious" appeals to patriotism and bigotry (usually in the same context).

*************

MEANWHILE, IN THE MINNWISSIPPI REGION'S WEATHER AS I WRITE THIS (knowing how many of you readers must come to expect the details thereof as a given to blog entries as discuss the day's headlines), it's cool and feeling damp to the point where rain could be likely later on in the day.

And, come to think of it, rain is likely to be the rule more than the exception for the rest of the week. Which, under the right conditions, may translate into another round of flash flooding as could rival the devastation of last August (and yet, many parts of the district as saw flood damage are still rebuilding--especially so Rushford, about 20 mile south of Winona as the crow flies).   

HAVING BEEN BROUGHT UP IN A MILEU OF ABUSE AND CRUELTY DURING MY LAST TWO YEARS OF HIGH SCHOOL, as included "suggestions" that I consider working in adult videos as being about the only "worthwhile career option" for someone with "serious mental disorders" like myself (aside from highly-expendable positions which were described by a racially-offensive term unfit to be repeated) who was otherwise expected to play along with Vocational Rehabilitation (VR), only to wind up on Social Security disability benefit, the following item from the "WaiWai" department of Japan's Mainichi Daily News brings back a sense of emotion.

Not to mention serving as a worthwhile lesson and advice for such from workfare "basket cases" whose teenaged children are being "advised" by high-school guidance counsellors to say No to State welfare, knowing all along that more conventional jobs are becoming evern more difficult to find, let alone hold down, so making such all the more suspectible to the procurer's advances:

Dealing with phone calls from literal jerks, picking out color coordinated condoms and selecting materials for simulated semen are just some of the duties of women working behind the scenes at adult moviemakers, according to Friday (5/9-16).

"I work in admin," a female office worker from an adult movie production company tells Friday. "My job involves everything from dealing with guys who call the company while they're masturbating to selecting condoms that aren't going to stand out on screen during filming."

Friday interviews the admin worker, a female assistant director and an adult actress to see what it's like from a women's side behind the scenes of the stick flick caper.

The picture the women give of the adult movie industry in Japan is a detailed one, with answers to 50 questions posed by readers of the magazine's mobile phone site.

Sexual harassment is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a part of their daily working lives.

"I'm used to the sexually abusive phone calls or requests for sales of adult items," one of the women says. "The problem with this job is dealing with the prejudices of the people around you. Many of the women working in this business never tell their boyfriends or parents what line of work they're really in."

Job interviews are also somewhat out of the ordinary.

"Women get asked questions like 'Do you enjoy sex?' or 'Do you masturbate?' and it's normal to be asked to flash your breasts," one of the women tells Friday. "It'd be sexual harassment in any other workplace, but for this job it's vital information the company needs to know."

Payment is an issue that seems high on the minds of most readers.

"Directors get paid according to how well their movies sell. It can run into the hundreds of thousands of yen per movie in some cases. Editing work is all done on a contract basis, so editors get paid pretty well," the adult video company employee says.

"Famous actresses can get paid ¥1 million or more per movie. For actresses on studio contracts, though, the rate is more like ¥80,000 to ¥100,000 per flick. The more popular an actress is, the more she's likely to get paid."

Appearances in direct-to-video porn are likely to be made by ordinary women.

"We get university students, office workers, part-time workers, housewives, nightclub hostesses, the works," one of the women working behind the scenes says. "It all depends on how well talent scouts have talked them into it. One thing all the women have in common is a tendency to be unable to say 'no.'"

In a business where companies disappear overnight, it's surprising to learn that payment is not always immediately done in cash.

"It really depends on the production company," one of the women says. "Some places only pay on a certain day each month."

The women also provide insight into what shooting schedules are like for the adult video market.

"The movies are all basically shot in a single day. If there are dramatic scenes involved, it might take a few days at most. But the production staff are all paid on a daily basis, so we can't afford to take time," one of the women says before going on to describe typical filming locations.

"Normally, the movies are made in a studio that costs several hundred thousand yen an hour to rent out. There are also studio sets with office, train or apartment scenes in them. The hardest shoots are outdoor locations. We've got to pay to rent out private property and usually have to restrict scenes not easily viewable, like building rooftops."

There are also onerous tasks like watching movies as they're being screened by industry watchdogs to prevent them from incurring the wrath of authorities–an easy thing to do considering the display of genitalia in Japanese adult movies is regarded as illegal.

"Normally, what happens is that applicants from a company looking for screening approval will sit down with a couple of old guys from Biderin (the Nihon Ethics of Video Association) in a dark room and watch the movie. If genitalia appears on the screen, everybody shouts out 'Hey, it's on screen,' or something like that and the old guys will tell us to blank it out better with the digital mosaic," one of the women says.

The women hasten to add that the adult video industry is, despite widespread perceptions, not exclusively a man's world.

"There are women adult video directors and plenty of movies made entirely from a women's erotic point of view," one of women working behind the scenes in the industry tells Friday.

"They've normally got these absolutely gorgeous hunks doing all the acting. I don't mind watching these movies at all."

And come to think of it, just how many "workfare" clients wind up being "advised" (as in tricked) to work in the adult trades as a better ticket towards self-reliance and personal responsibility than traditional 9-to-5 menial positions?

more cat pictures

BRANSON, MISSOURI'S MUZIKSCHAUKULTUR, FEATURING AS IT DOES NOTHING LESS THAN SUGAR-COATED CONSERVATIVE IDEALISM based on an idealised past, seems to be losing steam in recent years.

Especially considering the consequences of uncontrolled development since the "music show" tourism boom began some 20 years back translating into serious traffic problems and the lack of what could be called fresh material (let alone talent) in the established Muzikschau community as is concentrated along Shepherd of the Hills Expressway and 76 Country Boulevard for the most part.

Not to mention the vast majority of shows appealing to the same sort of audience who watches Fox Prolefeed or listens to the ilk of Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage and others from the Dark Satanic Mills of Neoconservative Propaganda--as in poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced White Low Church Christian families hard-wired in their Zealotry and True Belief in the Greater Neoconservative Agenda and its articles of faith.

As well as a substantial crowd from The Greatest Generation coming on cheap bus tours as include accomodations, meals and admission to the more popular shows--in particular those of Branson favourite Shoji Tabuchi, Andy Williams' Moon River Theatre, Tony Orlando's Yellow Ribbon Theatre and the outdoor dramatisation of the Harold Bell Wright novel The Shepherd of the Hills as first called attention to the Branson area nearly 100 years ago (and is still in print).

=============

UNFORTUNATELY, THOUGH, HIGH GASOLINE AND DIESEL FUEL PRICES MAY BE FORCING MANY TO RECONSIDER VISITING BRANSON, let alone bus tour operators having to impose fuel surcharges. That, and the generally souring socioeconomic situation.

Which could be enough to reach that point where some of the more blatantly propagandistic Branson music shows may be forced to pay visitors to sit through their sugar-coated drivel just to stay afloat ... or, for that matter, subsidise a number of bus tours as target especially lower-income areas which are natural targets for conservative articles of faith.

Subsidise such to the point of their being ridiculously cheap, as it turns out.

Much of the subsidy, it turns out, coming from conservative "foundations" seeing in Branson the One True and Final Perfection of Amerikanischer Realkultur based on their notions thereof--which, on closer and more thorough reading, turn out to be closer to the Social Realism school preferred by Communistic and Fascistic regimes, with the requisite Ayn Rand existentialism.

No wonder Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur is showing the same signs of clear desperation as Neoconservatism in general--could it be, perchance, that the two are intertwined in an unhealthy and unholy alliance of misguided convenience?

HONESTLY, THOUGH, YOUR CORRESPONDENT WOULD RATHER YOU DID SOME ONLINE SHOPPING THROUGH THIS BLOG, especially if you're the kind as considers yourself a regular visitor as needs to get some online shopping out of the way for once.

He could use the revenue, besides; after all, disability benefit can only go so far from month to month, and besides, he would rather make money online through honest means rather than wind up unwittingly giving aid and comfort to weird and unwholesome elements using "make money online" schemes as a fundraising front.

Weatherwise, thin high cloud expected to give way to thunderstorms from the evening on here in the Minnwissippi.

*************

THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT'S KULTURKRIEG BRANCH IS NO DOUBT REJOICING IN THE NEWS OF WHOLESALE FIRE DAMAGE TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD yesterday--as in a New York streetscape which many of you are well-acquainted with through numerous films and TV shows, the "King Kong" portion of the studio tour and storage vaults containing archive copies of thousands of films and TV episodes (in that last instance, however, they do have backup copies in storage elsewhere).

Considering where low water pressure may have only aggravated the efforts of fire fighters to bring the blaze under control, you can easily expect this particular element to play the Divine Wrath and Judgement card in their propaganda; remember, boys and girls, that the Religiopolitical Right only sees Hollywood as but an agency of the Evil Empire to "undermine and corrupt morals and decency."

The same ones, methinks, seeing Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur as The One True Acme and Perfection of American Culture--one based on an idealised Arcadian vision straight out of the 1950's, come to think of it.

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MEANWHILE, THE SO-CALLED "WISE USE MOVEMENT" IS NOT VERY HAPPY @ BEST BUY'S ANNOUNCEMENT OF THEIR LAUNCHING A PILOT PROGRAMME to collect waste consumer electronics for recycling free of charge @ selected locations, including stores in Minnesota and parts of neighbouring states.

I say "free" because consumer electronics manufacturers are increasingly embracing electronics recycling schemes as one with good business and corporate responsibility, in effect subsidising the costs of collection.

Next thing you know, expect "Wise Use" Zealots and True Believers to be pushing a "taxpayer lawsuit" challenging the legality of kerbside and collection bin-based recycling schemes based on their own rather absurd arguments about "waste and inefficency," "incompatibility with free-market socioeconomic models and paradigms," even "Communistic associations" (and citing in evidence--unless disallowed by the court--all manner of "mismanaged" recycling programmes in Communist regimes as only proved "inefficent and counterproductive").

*************

WITH RUSH "TRUTH DETECTOR" LIMBAUGH SOMEHOW OBSESSING WITH EUNUCHS AND THE EUNUCH CULTURE AND LIFESTYLE in his taking issue with Hillary Rodham-Clinton's Presidential aspirations (@ least until he put "Operation Chaos" into effect, the aim of the whole being to ensure victory for The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang in Indecision 2008 by making Ms. Rodham-Clinton an easier aunt sally), Your Correspondent might want to enquire if The Oxycontin Bull is really a eunuch himself.

Let alone impotent.

Or, for that matter, a sufferer of loathsome veneral diseases, especially so such strains thereof as are resistant to antibiotics (remember where penicillin was widely prescribed for full-on cases of gonorrhoea after it first became widely available after World War II).

*************

WITH HIGH FUEL PRICES MAKING MANY START TO THINK TWICE ABOUT THEIR SUMMER VACATION PLANS, NEVER MIND AGGRAVATED CASES OF NEURASTHENIA LIKELY TO ENSUE in the process, some of you may be tempted to fall for all manner of online offers supposedly offering cut-price travel deals through the likes of "travel clubs" and suchlike.

After reading the following (via "Watchdog" of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, know), you may want to think twice, especially considering the hidden dangers behind such tempting-looking offers:

If you're making plans for a summer trip, be very careful if you think you're getting a hot deal online.

Some of the travel offers you may find in your e-mail inbox or in an online search could end up cheating you out of money, putting malicious software on your computer or sending you to a porn site rather than on vacation.

MarkMonitor, a company that analyzes online scams, reports that in the past few months, there have been a lot of travel "opportunities" that could get you into trouble.

A common one—with 150 to 200 listings out there on any given day—points you to a fake auction site supposedly selling discount vouchers, said Fred Felman, the company's chief marketing officer. He pursued one to see what would happen. For $23.99 on a site pretending to be eBay, he got a coupon that promised to get him $75 off an airline flight. When he tried to use the electronic voucher with the major airline he was buying the ticket from, the voucher at first seemed to work. But when he tried to conclude the transaction by giving the airline his credit card number, "they said 'no dice' and charged me the full amount for the ticket," Felman said.

Other e-mails try to entice you with offers of big savings on airline tickets if you click on a link, but those sites are fronts for malware, which can infect your computer with spyware, put a keystroke recorder on your computer or make your computer an unwilling part of a network used for illegal purposes.

Don't ever click "OK" on pop-ups that appear on your screen, Felman said, or "you're gonna get bit." Instead, get the pop-ups off your screen by hitting your escape key. Plus, you should run your own software that helps block malware.

Another trick is redirecting users who type in search terms such as "cheap flights" or "Europe travel" to adults-only Web sites. Unscrupulous people figure at least some of the searchers who get to these porn sites by mistake will pay the registration or per-click fee to stay.

As if that weren't enough, some so-called "travel clubs" (in particular such targeting "right-thinking" working-class trash) will bundle themselves as part of a so-called "consumer benefits programme" which, in and of itself, may be using multi-level marketing (MLM) to conceal the real intent of its being a Ponzi scheme in disguise--i.e., there is no real "consumer benefits programme" to be sold, as opposed to "distributorships" to further carry on the scheme.

Even if they offer a reloadable debit card, mail-order pharmacy, auto club or online "buying club" as part of a greater scam laden with glowing generalities about "increasing consumer purchasing power" among the vulnerable and marginalised of society "consistent with American experience, heritage and traditions" (read: free-market capitalism with American characteristics-as-Great White Father empowering "welfare basket cases" to Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life).

Haven't they ever heard of the Rochdale Pioneers and how they saw the Industrial Revolution's "dark side" as an advantage to empower such among the working classes like themselves through cooperatives and the cooperative movement?  

THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT OF REMARKS FROM PAT ROBERTSON'S 700 CLUB SHOW OF 27 MAY 2008 (thanks to Right Wing Watch and Brave New Films for the hat tip), suggesting that recent disasters in Myanmar and China are but the "birth pangs of a new order" (and citing Scripture for his own purposes, as per usual), needs no further elaboration:

(Or does it?!)

THOSE OF A CERTAIN GENERATION WHO COME ACROSS THIS WEBLOG MAY STILL RECALL THE RATHER AWFUL-SOUNDING RADIO BROADCASTS from Mexican "border-blaster" radio stations XER and XERA on behalf of Dr. John R. Brinkley's "clinics" in Del Rio and Santa Cruz, Texas for, respectively, "lost manhood" and "that troublesome old cocklebur," as he referred to the prostate.

Brinkley, recall, had been hounded out of Milford, Kansas after losing two unsuccessful bids for Governor (the first such a spontaneously unsuccessful, last-minute "write-in" such) in the wake of the State Medical Board having revoked his licence for pretending to medical skill (his credentials having come from a "diploma mill" known as the Kansas City Eclectic Medical College), "addiction to liquor" and "gross immorality" in connexion with his goat-gland implant practice as was itself widely advertised over his very own radio station, KFKB by call sign, when he wasn't dispensing numbered "prescriptions" for and on behalf of his World Brinkley Medical Association on air.

(The Federal Radio Commission, precursor to the Federal Communications Commission, already revoked KFKB's licence for overzealous and shameless self-promotion contrary to public interest.)

In any case, for sheer frankness and crudity of scaring the vulnerable and easily-influenced with real or imagined prostate problems, Doc Brinkley would be glad to see his antics are alive and well--howbeit back in England's Green and Pleasant Land.

Er--make that the Channel Islands, more specifically Guernsey, targeting the area between Land's End and John O'Groats by direct mail blitz as eventually attracted the attention of the Advertising Standards Authority vis-a-vis IntraMed, Ltd., out of beautiful downtown St. Peter Port:

Ad
A direct mailing, for a course of herbal pills.  The mailing consisted of a letter, a leaflet and an order form. The leaflet showed a graphic diagram of a surgical procedure on a prostate.  Text stated: "Are you waking up at night to go to the toilet?  Don't let your prostate ruin your sleep or your life by allowing the condition to get worse.  Operations for prostate problems and cancer are common.  The surgical procedures themselves are very unpleasant ... This illustration shows you the main surgical technique used to help patients suffering from prostate problems.  Through a resectoscope, an electric loop is used to remove the excess part of the prostate as shavings.  You can clearly see how the prostate can be manipulated by the surgeon's finger which is inserted via the rectum ... How your prostate could become a problem and a potentially very serious one at that by the time you're 40 ... Whether you have reached this stage yet or not, take PRO-STAVITA NOW before it's too late".  On the reverse of the leaflet, text stated "Michel Bontemps  A truly talented man destined for great things ... Live a happy life full of sexual vigour  Become rejuvenated with a course of PRO-STAVITA".  Beneath that were a number of testimonials, most of which concerned a reduction in the frequency of night-time visits to the toilet following a course of Pro-Stavita tablets.  A box in the centre of the testimonials stated "Put your mind at rest  PRO-STAVITA relieves prostate problems quickly and restores you to a peak of sexual fitness".

Text on the order form stated "The one and only treatment to try straight away - PRO-STAVITA From the age of 40, a prostate or impotence problem could occur at any time.  That's why this subject needs to be taken very seriously.  You should be aware that hypertrophia of the prostate (the little gland located beneath the bladder) can worsen without effective treatment ... Call a HALT to this unpleasantness and discomfort NOW  Say YES to a life of comfort, freedom and relief by choosing PRO-STAVITA ... YES! I want to be free of prostate problems and reclaim my life ...".

Text in the letter stated "When Michel Bontemps stakes his reputation on one of his natural health remedies, it is because he is ABSOLUTELY certain of its effectiveness ... Michel Bontemps is going to reveal a remedy that will put an end to your prostate problems ... his main concern - to discover an effective weapon to fight prostate problems.  And he has succeeded ... even if your prostate isn't causing you any problems today, you should take the subject very seriously because ... Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of death in men! ... His new natural health preparation can 'rejuvenate' your prostate.  This means that you can avoid a lot of discomfort and perhaps even an operation ... if you neglect prostate problems too long you may need to undergo a painful surgical intervention ... After extensive research and experimentation, he discovered three plants with quite incredible powers to relieve prostate problems ... As far as I am aware, PRO-STAVITA is the most effective remedy to relieve prostatic hypertrophia.  Furthermore, it also opens the door to a better sex life ... rediscover abundant sexual energy.  PRO-STAVITA may be considered a miracle product ... Nigel Kelly  Your Health Adviser".

Issue
1. The complainant challenged whether the mailing was irresponsible, because they believed the image on the leaflet and the supporting text were designed to cause fear amongst recipients and scare them into buying the advertised product rather than seeking suitably qualified medical treatment for prostate problems.

The ASA challenged:

2. whether the mailing was irresponsible and likely to discourage readers from seeking qualified medical advice by offering advice on treatment for a serious medical condition;

3. whether IntraMed could substantiate the efficacy claims for the product, and in particular the implied medicinal claim that Pro-Stavita could help treat or prevent serious prostate conditions, including prostatic hypertrophia and prostate cancer;

4. whether the testimonials were genuine; and

5. whether the testimonials misleadingly implied efficacy.

Response
IntraMed said they would withdraw the ad if it was found in breach of the Code. They sent no evidence to support their claims.

Assessment
The ASA noted IntraMed had sent no evidence to support their claims; we welcomed their offer to withdraw the ad if it was found in breach of the Code.

1. & 2. Upheld
We considered that prostate problems were a serious medical condition. We considered that the image of a surgical procedure on a prostate was excessively graphic and was therefore likely to cause fear amongst some recipients and could discourage them from seeking professional medical advice for a serious medical condition. We also considered that, by referring to, and offering to treat or prevent, the occurrence of serious medical conditions, the ad breached the Code by making medicinal claims for an unlicensed product.  We further considered that the ad was irresponsible and likely to discourage readers from seeking qualified medical advice.

On points 1 and 2, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Responsible advertising), 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 9.1 (Fear and distress), 50.3 (Health & Beauty products and therapies - General) and 50.11(Health & Beauty products and therapies - Medicines).

3. Upheld
We considered that, because we had seen no evidence of the product's efficacy, the ad misleadingly implied that IntraMed could treat the conditions listed. We further noted that the ad made medicinal claims for an unlicensed product, in breach of the Code.
   
On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 50.1 and 50.3 (Health & Beauty products and therapies - General) and 50.11(Health & Beauty products and therapies - Medicines).

4. & 5. Upheld
We considered that, in the absence of any substantiation, the testimonials had not been proved to be genuine and misleadingly implied that the product was efficacious at treating prostate problems.  

On points 4 & 5, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 14.1, 14.3 and 14.4 (Testimonials).

Action
We told IntraMed to withdraw the ad. We also advised them to seek advice from the CAP Copy Advice team before advertising in future.

Dr. Brinkley would certainly be proud....