Last week ended triumphantly for “Dr” Gillian McKeith “PhD”, but worryingly for those of us with the capacity for rational thought. The latest PLR statistics for public library borrowing in the UK show the Poo Lady’s books in first and third position in the non-fiction chart.
But what a difference a weekend makes!
Ben Goldacre’s hard work, both in the Guardian and on his own Bad Science blog, has finally paid off. After a tip-off by one of Dr Goldacre’s regular readers, the Advertising Standards Authority has now ruled that McKeith’s use of the title “Dr” is “likely to mislead”, breaching two clauses of the Committee of Advertising Practice code: “substantiation” and “truthfulness”.
Of course, she’s still perfectly entitled to claim that a single seed contains enough energy to create a full-size plant, or that chlorophyll can create beneficial oxygen in the gut, and no doubt plenty of people will still buy her books, watch her TV shows and believe every dangerous word she says. But it’s a step in the right direction…