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!!!!!

[Texagain]

That one doesn't bother me any more or less than any of their other stupid commercials. All of those shampoo commercials are moronic. I can't believe they got past the quality control people in the advertising department. P-U.

[sjoe]

"the quality control people in the advertising department."

LOL. That's a good one! You have a Texas-size sense of humor, I see.

[RNIAM, BSN, RN]

I remember that washing my hair in a seductive manner, was the first thing they taught us in Nursing school to increase BP's...lol.

[OBNURSEHEATHER]

Originally posted by MishlB

It doesn't bother me. I know what I do at work.

[eltrip]

For some reason, their website wouldn't accept my e-mail comments. So, I've provided my comments to the clairol company via telephone. The operator in the call center was courteous & said that she'd pass my comments on...hopefully not to the circular file!

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

I THOUGHT IT WAS CUTE

DOO WAH DITTY

[liberalrn]

When will our image ever change? It must serve some other purpose for the collective conscous.......

[TracyB,RN, RN]

TTFW Too tacky for words.

[Enabled]

There are starting to be too many commercials that have no regard for professional women. It is about time this masculine run industry learns a thing or two. Let's have one in which the insurance companies stop paying for the viagra. You would never see that happen to a doctor. I think the should have a disclaimer that this is an actress or actor and not a nurse. Impressions like this is only going to make the nursing shortage worse. I find it professionally degrading.

[amken]

I doubt people were thinking when they saw that commercial that REAL nurses would wash their hair and ignore their patient. Look at all the commercials out there.................when you watch them..do you believe it all???????????

[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.

[email protected] if you wish to comment to Clairol

[AHarri66, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by JNJ

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.

:roll