I was reading Cosmo last night, when I stumbled upon an advertisement for smashbox's lash DNA mascara. I don't usually look at the ads for expensive make-up, but being a scientist, I was interested in what smashbox defined as DNA. I figured it was an acronym, and I was right, it's apparently and acronym for DeoxyriboNucleic Acid...good ole fashioned genetic material. Now what could possibly make me angry about this? Nothing.
What upsets me is the information they deliver. Keep in mind, this ad will be seen by non-scientists, many of them young high school and college students. Here is what the ad says:
What bothers me is the words in bold. PROTEINS AND AMINO ACIDS DO NOT MAKE UP DNA!!!
So this is false education. So, if any of you are just as upset as I am about this, please feel free to join me in e-mailing smashbox. A link to customer service is below where there is an e-mail address... I don't mind mascara that "defies genetics" or saying that proteins bind to the lashes to make them prettier, but saying proteins make up DNA is downright wrong and can serve to miss-educate students.
Customer Service contact info
Anyhow, I'm done ranting...hope you guys have a good day!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Upset about make-up
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3 comments:
I can easily understand why you are upset about. There are lots of "scientific" words used wrong on advertisements here in Mexico too, and the bad thing about it is that people get their education from TV and not from school (sad, but true).
Maybe this people thought DNA was a nice name for a product, and they were right. Maybe if DNA stood for Definitely Nice Allover (sorry about the stupid idea)or something and they had kept the "Long lashes not in your genes" tag so their costumers could have been curious and read about the real DNA they could have contributed to education instead...
I know, I know, I'd be a terrible marketer.
Well, you're a better marketer than they are. At least your ad doesn't contain outright false facts. Actually, the whole reason I read the ad is because I thought that maybe DNA was supposed to mean something different for them. Definitely Nice Allover works! Or maybe: Dramatic, Nourished, and Alluring! I just can't believe they thought it would be ok to put a completely false phrase in an ad. And the e-mail they sent to me in reply was so a brush-off. They said that my concerns have been logged in the customer suggestion box. grrr
That advertisement is not only miseducation, it is also a lie: Check out the ingredients list, there are no amino acids and no nucleic acids listed...
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