I had a friend who was one year asked to invent an 'equation for the best way to pull a cracker' for a promotion campaign, so he dutfully did in a couple of hours as a bit of fun. He then found it in all the papers as if it has been his lifes work (helped he was 'Dr' - of engineering I must point out) and he was being asked to appear on Richard and Judy and the BBC. He politely declined as he didn't think he'd be able to keep a straight face. He went on though the next christmas to invent the equation for how to win at board games (the company gave him a load of free ones to 'help his research') and once again the papers dutifully published the results.
So the moral is - don't believe every bit of research you see in the paper (I still want to meet the guy who came up wih the equation for the perfect sandwich) or every expert who appears on the telly.
