The Bio-Rad corporation has released a music video called “Scientists for better PCR” to promote their new 1000-series of thermal cyclers (PCR machines).
It’s well done indeed. But I think MedGadget get it wrong when they write that “it does successfully fill the time between test tube changes”.
The model for the Bio-Rad video is apparently the 1985 bestselling “We are the world” song by Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones, which was produced for charity reasons, to raise funds to help famine-relief efforts in Africa. The 45 singers gathered as artists for a better world, like Bob Geldof‘s Band Aid and Live Aid concerts.
Bio-Rad is probably not interested in raising funds for anyone else but their own shareholders. So the biotech company is just exploiting the good vibrations of popular culture for commercial reasons. Bad taste! What would Naomi Klein (No Logo) think of this?
Better fill the time between test tube changes with some serious reflections about the advertising strategies of the transnational biotech market instead.
