Not much more than 100 years ago, ordinary citizens were unaware of the role of microorganisms in the cause and spread of disease. In her book, “The Gospel of Germs”, Nancy Tomes describes the development of our collective cultural obsession with germs. To quote her book, “The rituals of germ avoidance are so many and so axiomatic that we scarcely can remember when or where we first learned them.” As awareness of this danger has taken hold, there has emerged a certain societal preoccupation with the perils of microorganisms. Microbes are real, and so some of the phobia originates from facts, but there is clearly more to the phenomenon. Think about the images of microorganisms used in advertisements, and the number of antibacterial products on the market. Write about the negative and positive aspects of this and defend the position that you take. Post the URLs of two websites/ TV; Magazine ads/ Billboards, etc that relies upon this fear to market products to consumers and POST your opinion about the relative merit of the product advertised.
