h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They don't really make toilet paper, even the expensive kind, out of fluffy white kittens or swans. What sort of person would buy toilet paper with the idea that they do? Apart from the fact that cats are often quite scratchy and swans are anything but absorbent (the wouldn't bob about on ponds if they were), a person would have to be pretty twisted to put either of those things to such use.

JTG,

Forgive me if I am being thick, but what brought that on I thought it was made from labradors

Websailor

Labradors? That must be an English thing - an improvement on the wax paper I remember in public lavs if it is.

That's because one of the most well known brands of toilet paper in the UK is often advertised with labrador puppies - cute but irrelevant. Next to half clad girls , cutesy animals appear to help things sell. If you are naive that is! The horrible shiny paper you remember has all but gone, thank goodness

What brought on your comments in the first place? I am curious!

Websailor

I honestly couldn't say what made me think of that when I did.

We have been seeing a lot of swans lately on Lake Ontario, chasing the geese around and generally acting regal, just like in the adverts... though, it must be said, nothing about the way they look makes me the least bit inclined to misuse one in the way the adverts suggest.

It's interesting that the UK marketing people favour labs and scantily clad girls. There was an advert here, I now recall, which featured a model dancing about in a diaphanous, vaguely classical looking outfit, but without a dog. More recent attempts to sell toilet paper here seem to favour cartoon animals which become ecstatic over the product's unequalled softness. I don't know whether that's progress or not.

JTG