The aim of Vancouver’s Science World education centre – encouraging children’s interest in science – is sure to get another boost tomorrow, thanks to local agency Rethink. The latest addition to the ongoing ‘We can explain’ campaign is ‘sneeze-vertising’ – talking transit shelter posters that spritz liquid on unsuspecting commuters at the push of a button. That the sneeze-like spray is only water is a fact ‘victims’ are expected to absorb along with spoken trivia such as: ‘Did you know sneeze particles can hover in the air for more than three hours?’

Other elements in the (pro bono) Science World campaign, which launched last month, include a 3-D Skytrain poster made with thousands of real pencils, along with the message ‘Your body contains enough carbon to fill 9,000 pencils,’ and the placing of branded bathroom scales in office building elevators to demonstrate that ‘You weigh less on the way down.’ Now in its third year, the campaign ‘has worked wonders for us,’ says Science World president/CEO Bryan Tisdall. ‘It’s helped drive attendance.’