Earthly Delights

Cranky



Yes, it's complaining time! Once again!!
(If you saw me this weekend and already heard about it, feel free to skip this)

I am mad at my shampoo. Or, rather, I am mad at the LABEL of my shampoo. I quote:

"INNOVACIÓN: LA PROTEÍNA DE PERLA
Activo que contribuye al brillo y a la resistencia de las perlas, la PROTEINA DE PERLA está concentrada de aminoácidos - elementos nutritivos. ELVIVE NUTRI-GLOSS, penetra en la cabellera para... blablabla"

Here's the problem (apart from the fact that whoever wrote it doesn't know where to put the commas, which is bad enough): I am TOTALLY insulted by it. Why? Because proteins are MADE of aminoacids. So "pearl protein", "concentrada de aminoácidos", would be no different from, I don't know, 'slug' protein or any other protein. I am not trying to be smart in public by saying this; I am deeply, deeply disturbed by it. Who writes this? It is, very clearly, an attempt to be smart and pseudo scientific and to make women buy this because the word 'aminoacids', the publicist or label writer assumes, would make them associate the shampoo with people in labcoats working their asses off doing research to make their hair beautiful. Fine. A marketing strategy. The world for sale. BUT, this is not people calling plastic a 'polymer'. This is the equivalent to selling water as a 'compound of hydrogen and oxygen', except everybody knows this about water. Well, the aminoacids thing is not that complicated either. Actually, I assume that anyone older than 12 was taught this at some point in secondary school. What the label is assuming, though, is that anyone who buys this shampoo will not know that and will be impressed (or maybe, that they will not read it). This is not a label for poor people; it's L'Oreal, whose slogan is "I'm worth it" (translation: I am able and willing to spend more on my appearance). That is, its target is supposedly a population with more money and, it would follow in theory, more education; women who are more likely to know about aminoacids. What this says to me is any or all of the following:

1. You are stupid and you do not read.
2. You care more about your hair than your brain.
3. We hire stupid people to write out our labels--we do not respect you enough to do a good job on them.
4. We will patronize you, and explain what aminoacids are: "elementos nutritivos". Gee, thanks.

I don't know if the original label in French or perhaps English says the same thing. (The website, for France, Mexico and the UK, does not.) And it would be no big deal if this was just about a shampoo label; however, it just reminds me of the state of my country, which I find more disturbing and depressing, where people in power are willing to do anything to make a profit while the ignorant masses do not demand respect from them and accept anything they are given--bad tv, kindergarten-level debates, etc. See Er's comment on what to me is the same topic.

I am NOT overreacting, am I?