It’s A Raft, But Only In Great Britain

We have an inflatable bed that we use for houseguests. This bed has a built-in electric air pump that is used to self-inflate the mattress. Setting it up this week, I noticed something interesting about the warning on the side:

As you can see, the warning for the United States clearly indicates that the bed is not for use in water, but no such warning is given for Great Britain. Why the difference? I can think of a few reasons:

• Water in Great Britain is different from water in the United States (infused with faerie magic, perhaps) and this permits the bed to be used as a raft there
• People in Great Britain aren’t as fat as Americans so the bed is more likely to support them when used as a raft
• The manufacturer doesn’t care if the British drown or electrocute themselves
• The British are smart enough to realize that an inflatable bed is not a pool toy
• People in Great Britain can read English and will get the information from the U.S. warning anyway

And the last, most likely, reason:

• Nobody in Great Britain has yet successfully sued the manufacturer for failing to explicitly state that, hey, you might not want to take this bed that has an internal electric motor and power cord and use it in your swimming pool

As Steve Dallas says: “God bless America, land of the lawsuit!”