Clarins product: “scepticism abounds”
COSMETIC advertisements remain a treasury of claims that get less precise the more closely you look. Three readers alerted us, however, to the way Clarins Cosmetique’s blurb for its Expertise 3P product became very specific. Proclaimed benefits included a “Magnetic Defence Complex” that “protects skin from the ageing effects of Artificial Electromagnetic Waves”.
So how would that work, then? Feedback normally recommends tinfoil to protect from the effects of electromagnetic waves. In any case, we thought the electromagnetic waves posing the greatest threat to your skin came from that all-natural fusion reactor in the sky.
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Reader Mary Ratcliffe draws our attention to Clarins’s legal statement, specifying that “any reproduction or representation of the website’s contents is strictly forbidden”. We in turn draw Clarins’s attention to the parts of that permit reproduction of extracts as “fair dealing” for the purposes of review and criticism.
This, we are sure, applies even when the extracts are no longer there, for the claims that Expertise 3P “protects skin from the ageing effects of Artificial Electromagnetic Waves” were dropped from the Clarins website sometime between 7 and 10 August.
At first, we wondered why they had done this. Then we came across an adjudication of the UK Advertising Standards Authority, published on 15 August, which upholds complaints made against Clarins (UK) in response to claims made in its advertising. concludes as follows:
“We told Clarins not to state that electromagnetic waves generated by modern-day devices or domestic communications equipment could damage or age skin or to imply anti-ageing and pro-health efficacy claims for Expertise 3P unless they held robust scientific evidence to support that. We also told them not to make an undue appeal to consumers’ fear of the harm that could be caused by man-made electromagnetic waves.”
It all adds piquancy to the comment made in the with Clarins Laboratories managing director Lionel de Benetti that appeared on 9 August in the Malaysian newspaper The Star. “With these types of products,” he says, “it is necessary to explain the science behind them.”
We certainly agree – and we can’t say we’re surprised to read at the end of the article: “De Benetti admits that it hasn’t been an easy process trying to sell this product and scepticism abounds.”
“On a packet of Growing Success mouse killer: “For use only as an amateur mouse killer”. Bob Humphrey observes: “So, those professional mice didn’t waste their tuition fees”
Telephone exchanges evade laws of physics
IN AN on 2 August about broadband speeds failing to live up to the promises of internet service providers, BBC online news quotes a BT spokesman as saying of an advertised speed of 8 megabits per second: “Virtually no one will get it. The laws of physics start applying as soon as it leaves the exchange, and you would have to live on top of the exchange to get the full 8 megabits.”
Several readers have written to us expressing surprise that the laws of physics apparently do not apply within telephone exchanges. They wonder what it’s like working in one.
THE BBC also had some surprising news about a telescope that week. “The Alma telescope [in Chile],” an stated, “will study the night sky at sub-millimetre wavelengths. Astronomers say Alma will illuminate one half of the universe that has hitherto been shrouded in darkness.”
Tony Park, who alerted us to this, feels that this intention is somewhat overambitious, not least because of the amount of time it would take, given the speed of light.
FROM a recent issue of the Denton Record-Chronicle published in Texas: “The St Paul Christian Learning Center is looking for a 2-year-old teacher who would like to help in making a difference in the lives of children.” Bill Reed, who spotted this, hopes they are successful but suspects 2-year-old teachers are pretty hard to come by these days – qualified ones, at any rate.
FINALLY, we asked you a couple of weeks ago if it is true that there is a sign at a hospital in Southampton, UK, that says: “Maternity Department – Deliveries at Rear” (4 August). Thanks to the many of you who responded and sent photographs to prove your point. You all agreed that such a sign does exist, but you all also noted that it is located in the grounds of the University of Southampton, not the hospital, and that the actual wording of the sign is: “University of Southampton School of Nursing and Midwifery. Deliveries at rear of building.”
Special thanks go to Jim Leppard, who reminded us that he told us about this sign six years ago and that we “kindly published” an item about it on 2 June 2001. We are glad that Leppard seems to be the only person who remembers this, but we are still blushing.
