The other day I came across one of those heartstring-tugging videos from The Christian Broadcasting Network.
Sometimes I really wonder if they even pay attention to their pitches.
Here’s the video:
It’s about poor Vianca who plays barefoot, because she can only afford one pair that she wears to school.
And then the video tells us
Then one day Vianca stepped on an old rusty nail, puncturing her foot.
Here’s the picture from the video.
The Nasty Nail
Who’s the moron that left a board out there with the nail sticking up like that?
Ah, but CBN’s Operation Blessing and Toms Shoes came to the rescue. New shoes!
The Toms Shoe to "Solve" the Problem
And they say
With her new shoes, Vianca can now run and play with her friends without fear of injury, and that makes Bianca and her friends very happy.
See?
Playing with those "Safe" Shoes (where they don't matter)
But look at those shoes. Does anybody really think they will stop a nail like the one in the picture from going through that rubber-like sole? Of course not. So why would they even make this video?
They are touting shoes that will not solve the problem they are using to illustrate it.
It’s even worse.
You see, when you wear shoes like that, you culture rather nasty bugs like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. And then if you step on that nail, it injects them deep into your foot where they find an ideal environment for them, and preferentially cause osteomylelitis (an infection of the bone marrow). See Soft tissue and bone infections from puncture wounds in children, by T. J. Laughlin, et al.
There are so many other things that that money could have gone to to improve Vianca’s life. But few that are as showy and likely to generate undeserved praise.
The first thing I thought of was what you pointed out. How the hell is a shoe like that going to protect her from a nail that big??
Hmm, it figures that they are going to make up a myth to support their point of view. Those shoes offer no more protection than an average unlined rain jacket provides warmth in the winter. Ironically, I can tell from experience that even most children’s sneakers don’t really offer protection. Once as a boy, I cut my foot on a broken bottle while wearing my school shoes. These people are bold-faced liars, and should be ashamed of themselves.
Bob,
Sorry to add on a second comment, but I just spotted something I had missed the first time. Watch the film real closely between 16 seconds, and 22 seconds. (You may have to rerun it a few times) Unless it’s my eyes, Vianca appears to be wearing flipflops when she stepped on the nail, not barefoot like they claim. If she stepped on the nail through flip flops with a 1/4 inch sole, you know the Toms shoes would offer her any better protection! I’ll say it again, these folks are liars!
If I’m wrong, I’ll appoligise, but just take a look and see if there is something to what I though I saw.
Tim,
You are right in what you see, but don’t forget that this whole thing is staged. Of course there were not cameras around when she actually stepped on the nail, so all of this was a re-enactment. So, who knows what really happened?
Of couse Bob! I was only intending to point out that they demonstrated that the premise of their shoe campaign is false, by showing that a shoe with a thicker sole than the one they are offering does not give protection. Theirfore they prove that their claim that their shoe would have prevented the accident is in fact a lie! They claim to solve a problem, and than prove their own claim is, in fact, false!
That’s the point I was hinting at in my last post! Tom’s Shoes inadvertently disproved their own claim in the video.
I commented on the YouTube but don’t know if it’s visible.
Besides, accidents do happen (and this one does not seem too serious with a complete recovery after 3 days). If the girl had cut her hand on the same nail, would Operation Blessing and Toms Shoes have rushed to provide her with gloves?
I dread to think what they have to offer if a child should accidentally sit down on the nail while playing.