[Bookwoman] K2O Completely Off Topic

[Lee Anne Phillips]

I know this is completely off topic, but there is a
possible tie-in with the concept of literacy itself.

One notes with wondering amazement that Kellogg
is now marketing a diet drink named K2O, which
just happens to be the chemical name of Potassium
oxide, a dangerous corrosive poison almost instantly
fatal if ingested, but in a particularly gruesome and
painful manner, since it explodes violently on contact
with water, forming caustic lye.

Please don't leave this stuff laying about where
children might see it, since one finds the same
chemical symbol listed on bags or other containers
of plant fertilizer, although K2O is never actually used,
for obvious reasons, one of its less active salts being
substituted instead.

For their next campaign, perhaps Kellogg could
market a yummy breakfast cereal and name it
Cyanide, although Arsenic has a nice ring to it
as well, but why not offer another named Rat
Poison for beginning readers who might have
trouble with the complicated names?

Cheers,

Lee Anne
============================
To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, never
overestimate the intelligence of the
American marketer.