It is Thursday, the 11th of September 2025, and you are listening to Skeptics with

K, the podcast for science, reason, and critical thinking. Skeptics with a K is produced by

Skeptic Media in association with the Merseyside Skeptic Society, a non-profit organization for

the promotion of scientific skepticism on Merseyside around the UK and internationally. I am your

host, Mike Hall. With me today is Marsh. Hello. And Alice. Hello. I'm a sucker for marketing

dressed up as a magazine. Okay. You know when you go into like the supermarket and you get one of the little free magazines or boots, boots do them as well? You got like a Tesco food magazine. I get so excited every month for the new release of the Tesco Food magazine. That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's just an advert for Tesco. It's just an advert for Tesco. I know absolutely what

the purpose in it is, but I still get excited for it every year. I suppose I used to get excited

about the new Argos catalogue, which is nothing except a big book of marketing. So that's true.

Do you think there's anybody, like, were you old enough for Argus catalogs? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, where's the cutoff point for that? Because I think Argos catalogs as an exciting thing, they died before they stopped coming out because the internet made them kind of obsolete in the sense that it used to be when I was growing up if you wanted to see what toys are available, you had to look in the Argos Cat was. Or watch TV adverts.

Or watch TV adverts. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Whereas then it came along, you could just Google stuff. I don't think that had television and Bishop or Wendy. I think that was, no. I am older than Google being, like, quite so common in every home. Yeah. Certainly for children. You grew up with the internet in the house. I could be interested in the house.

So like you're around the cusp.

You might have been, you might have not been an Argosk kid. every home. Yeah. Certainly for children. You grew up with the internet in the house. I grew up the internet in the house.

So like you're around the cusp.

You might have been,

you might have not been an Argos kid. It's possible. You probably never saw an index catalogue though, did you? No, I don't think so. Or little woods. No, well, but the reason I wouldn't have seen closed catalogs is because I grew up in a middle class family, not because of my age.

Yeah, yeah.

Like we wouldn't have had catalogs like that delivered to our house because it's just not that kind of thing. We did establish the other day that you're too young to remember the Kiora advert and too young to remember the reference in the sitcom space to how old the Kiara advert was. Not too young to remember space. I just haven't watched space. Well, I've watched three episodes of space. I think it came out in about 2002. You were 12. 11, 12. You're too young for Spaced. It's too orangey for crows. It's too orangey for crows. It's far too orangey for crows. I think I was a horribly racist advert as well.

I'm sure it would have been. I think it was dreadfully racist. It was a play with Mbongo. Yes, which I'm given to understand they never actually drink in the Congo. Never do. They never do. That's just a scurrilous rumor put about by whoever the fuck made Mbongo. I had their name in my head for a second then. It's gone. I don't have it my head.

Libby's Libby's umbongo is what it was.

Libby's,

yeah. or whoever the fuck made Ubongo. I had the name in my head for a second, then it's gone. I don't have it in my head. Libby's Ubongo is what it was. Libby's, good Lord. Good. So every month I get excited. I didn't even get one sentence into my piece that time. Do you remember when people used to write to us and say you were being sexist when you interrupted me in an, in an article. Yes, I don't remember that.

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