Erroneous figures in appeal advertisements

[jon lynn]

I do think asking for donations for the needy is truly a good thing. But to flat out lie! Shouldn’t it be agents the law to make up stuff, or inflate the numbers?

Today I saw an appeal for drinking water in the poorest areas of Africa. The appeal stated that:

“Five-thousand children die a day from bad water!”


So let us see: 5000 x 7 days a week = 35,000 deaths or 182,000 per year.

Could it be that bad? I know Africa is a huge landmass of poverty stricken persons, but for children alone it seems a bit exaggerated.

The last time a ‘statistic’ upset me, was when I discovered anti-gun groups were telling schools that millions of children were killed by guns in the US every year (I forgot the exact figure).

For the water…maybe I could let that slide, people do need help. But the gun hate groups, couldn’t legal action be taken as sort of a ‘slander’ type thing?