Alviso's Medicinal All-Salt

I chose to examine Jon Cohrs and Morgan Levy’s web page in which they advertise a product called Alviso’s Medicinal All-Salt. This is a web-site dedicated to a false product that claims to have all the curative properties of most of the pharmaceuticals people take. This is because they harvest it out of the San Francisco Bay. Their site is here. The two artists posit that many of the pills, including antidepressants and antibiotics that humans take are not filtered out of waste water in water treatment plants. This water is then pumped, in this case, out into the San Francisco Bay where they suggest in a roundabout way through satire, that it may have an effect on the aquatic flora and fauna. The site has a picture of their product seen to the left, as well as a video that is a parody of a drug commercial that can be seen here.

Cohrs, and Levy raise some really important questions concerning what we dump into our water supplies. Though much of their site contains juvanalian satirical, containing lines such as “We don’t yet know how most plants and animals are enjoying their new treatment, but we do know that pharmaceuticals are designed specifically to act on the human body, even at low concentrations, thereby making our salt a viable and effective medicinal product for you and me!” Obviously animals are not enjoying their treatment. The site is very humorous however despite this humor, a general feeling of concern is raised. The question our overuse of drugs as a society, and raise important concerns about how we are unable to truly purify the water coming out of a water treatment plant.

I think the site is absolutely perfect. The bottle of Alviso’s Medicinal All-Salt harkens back to cure all tonics prevalent during and before the early 20^th century. The descriptions they use are witty, humorous and informative. The movie they made is excellent. Opening with a panning shot of flowers, flashing “Organic” and having hands sift through the apparent all-salt, is comical and is a direct parody of drug and food commercials. You would almost want to get the salt if you didn’t know what was in it. I think that the humor is easy enough to get so that the satirical message of their site is not lost. The concept for the site and product seems like an excellent way of raising awareness and convrying their message.