I usually post in the Books area, but I wanted to share something from popular culture that has always amused me. In writing the monthly newsletter for my Science Shelf website, I always try to come up with an enticing title. Since I was featuring a book about a rocket scientist and some books written for The World Year of Physics 2005, I decided to call the column "You Don't Have to be a Rocket Scientist," with the implication that people love to read about many things outside their expertise.
To reinforce my point, I downloaded and included a couple of images from the classic "You Don't Have to be Jewish to Love Levy's" ad campaign for "Levy's real Jewish Rye" bread.
It left me with these questions, and I'd love to know what other people think. First, would such a campaign today be quickly entangled in political correctness flap? Second, what other "You don't have to be" campaigns have had similar impact on the culture?
Article comments