i am on vacation this week, hiking in californias yosemite national park. the fact that i am likely to encounter bears on the trip may have made me overly sensitive, but when i saw the latest tv commercial for timberland, i wondered if the company could be held accountable mens custom boots for bad advice. dont they know you are not meant to run from a bear?

the ad in question is titled bait and features a guy outrunning first a wild boar and then a pack of wolves. finally, when faced with a grizzly bear, the guy sets off running again. the tagline proclaims, if youre not fast, youre food.

taken at face value, the ad is a harmless piece of hyperbole, but according to mediapost, the new ad is timberland shoes womens part of an extensive multi-channel campaign aimed at young city dwellers around the globe. most of them probably have no clue what to when they come across a bear. running away really is a bad idea. you cant run faster than a womens 6 inch boots bear, and its carnivore instincts guarantee it will chase you. of course, the real mistake the guy made was not running with a friend. that way he would only have to run faster timberland shoes sale than his buddy, not the wildlife chasing them.

under the circumstances, playing dead would probably be the guys best option. but what about the boar and the wolves, you might ask? trust me, faced with a grizzly you wont see them for dust. most bear encounters are far less dramatic than the one portrayed in the ad, but they can escalate if you are not careful. click here for more information on what to do should you be lucky enough to meet a bear in the wild.

as i said, the timberland ad is clearly hyperbole. but the instinct to run when faced timberland outlets with potentially dangerous animals is strong anyway. could timberland be culpable for reinforcing the wrong idea in peoples minds? let me know what you think.