Clairol commercial misrepresents nurses

[Geeg]

I saw the most ridiculous insulting commercial for Clairol Herbal Essence on TV last night: There is a pt lying in a bed, with a woman dressed in white sitting next to him. All of the sudden she gets a whif of some Herbal Essence and leaves the pt to go and wash her hair in the adjoining bathroom. She is overcome with joy due to the shampoo experience and pays no attention to the cardiac monitor that starts to alarm. I am very offended because the general public will assume that this woman is a nurse, and sherking her responsibilities. I don't know about you, but I barely have time to pee, let alone wash my hair at work. Someone, (I am too lazy to do it) needs to call for some boycott of Clairol or something!!!!!

[AmyLiz]

I'll stick with Suave. Smells just as good & is cheaper to boot.

[sixes]

I recieved the same response from Clariol

Originally posted by JNJ

In response to my polite email to Clairol, the following was received:

-------Original Message-------

From: Herbal

Sent: 03/20/03 05:41 AM

To:

Subject: Herbal Essences

>

> Thank you for contacting us.

It was very thoughtful of you to share your opinions about an ad for

Herbal Essences®. Consumer research is an essential step in developing

every Clairol advertising program. Depending on the product and the

advertising plan, we conduct personal interviews, phone surveys, small

group focus meetings, or use any number of other survey methods.

Obviously, we hope that these efforts will give us an accurate

evaluation of consumer response. Sometimes they don't.

Your letter has alerted us to a possible problem. You can be sure we

will share your comments with our advertising agency and all the

employees who worked on that campaign. We appreciate your constructive

criticism. Your perspective and recommendations are very important to

us. We will include them with other consumer comments as we continue to

monitor and evaluate Clairol advertising programs, now and in the

future.

Clairol Consumer Affairs Team

My response:

Thank you for your standard reply. I was hoping for an apology and comment that it was not your intention to portray a nurse in such an outdated, stereotypical manner. I doubt if nurses ever were as your ad. suggested, but certainly today's nurse is an educated professional with skills in applied technology and applied psychology. This seems to be rather more than the 'work' of your advertising agency personnel would imply.

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