Brett Berk

The Gay Uncle spent a day in Washington D.C. this week, speaking before members of the Federal Government. No, his testimony was not the result of that silly little extrajudicial transfer flight he took to Jordan during the tail end of the last administration (or was it Syria? Gunc can’t remember. Maybe it was that hood he was wearing the whole time. And the genital Tasering. And all those dogs.) Rather, he was invited to be an expert panelist in a conference on “Children and the Commercial World”, a fact-finding discussion set up to help the Federal Trade Commission create a functional, cool, and motivating program to teach young people Advertising Literacy skills, things like: understanding the tricks and tools of the advertising industry; decoding the origin, motivation and messages embedded in advertisements, and; learning to be smarter, more informed and discerning consumers of our material world. As any of you who have read the Gay Uncle’s spectacular and critically acclaimed book will know, he’s been a big advocate for just this kind of national program for some time. So he was thrilled to be a part of the process. As an added bonus, he learned all sorts of interesting stuff, met some really smart people, and found out that whatever you say to the U.S. Government becomes official public record. (Gulp!) If any of you die-hard fans want to watch him do his wind-up-monkey routine in The District, here’s a link to the webcast. Gunc believes that he said a few smart things, but more than this, was fundamentally impressed by the wisdom of his co-panelists. He’s in Panel 2.