No advocating for avocados!

I don't really know about this whole Gillian McKeith phenomenon, and I'm glad I run little risk of seeing her on television, but the comedy value (to my geeky self at least) of one comment at least in her book makes up for any problems. She says:

"I generally advocate ... avocados to my patients."

I laugh at this partly because of the similarity between the words, but mainly because of the painful conflict between McKeith's approach to advocating and my approach to advocacy.

Let's get straight to the point: I'd like to ban the verb 'to advocate'. I don't think advocates need it, and I think it causes a great deal of confusion and maybe even bad practice. It leads to statements like 'advocate on behalf of...' or 'advocate for...'

We are advocates, we practise advocacy. These nouns are enough, we can celebrate them. But if we do too much advocating for avocados the joke will quickly get worn out, so please, just don't go there.