Advertising Madness

Some dubious advertising on television here have made me wonder if lax consumer law is allowing foreign companies to make claims that they would never get away with making somewhere else. Of course there's the usual insinuation that you're a lousy person (usually mother) if you don't buy a particular product, but a few claims seem so absurd that less stringent regulation has to be a factor.

Take, for example, Colgate toothpaste. It claims to have "liquid calcium" that gets to those hard-to-reach areas between teeth. Liquid calcium? What the hell is liquid calcium?

Dettol soap claims to form a protective barrier around its loyal users, who would be more exposed to bacteria with other soaps. And then there's the laundry detergent that purports to reach those notorious 10 stain-prone areas of a shirt better than other detergents (the stain-prone areas include the front of the shirt and the collar). 

The most egregious that I've seen is for Pampers diapers. Pampers claims that its diapers hold wetness for an impressive 12 hours. According to Pampers, this incredible absorbency allows your baby to sleep longer at night, which in turn makes him fresh in the morning and more ready to learn, which in turn makes him smarter. So, the claim _ baldly stated, not insinuated _ is that Pampers make your baby smarter.

I wonder what scientific evidence Pampers has to back up that claim. To say nothing of the fact that no baby is going to sleep for 12 hours anyway because a) few humans sleep for 12 hours at a stretch; b) it will get hungry; and c) its diaper will fill up with crap as well as "wetness" (absorbency is irrelevant when it comes to crap).

Comments

[Rob]

No-one ever lost money by assuming general ignorance of science. See also homoeopathy and any number of diet fads with a spurious scientific basis.

I suspect liquid calcium falls into the usual paradigm. There is an iota of sense in using liquid calcium - which I think is some form of calcium phosphate and is involved in the body in bone formation - and putting it in toothpaste to strengthen teeth. But an iota of sense is not the same as scientific proof. As I suspect there is none to suggest that it does actually strengthen teeth.

[Dad Mzungu]

Nick
I can't see much difference over here (UK).
Products now have ingredients that are good for you - the only problem is that these "ingredients" have been given "trade names" so you have no idea what they actually are.
Having seen the adverts in question, I find that they are so ridiculous that their claims are transparent. Frankly, I found them to be the best comedy on Kenyan TV. Pity about the programmes that interrupt the adverts.
Confused.

[Dad Mzungu]

Nick
I can't see much difference over here (UK).
Products now have ingredients that are good for you - the only problem is that these "ingredients" have been given "trade names" so you have no idea what they actually are.
Having seen the adverts in question, I find that they are so ridiculous that their claims are transparent. Frankly, I found them to be the best comedy on Kenyan TV. Pity about the programmes that interrupt the adverts.
Confused.

[Shashank]

"Absorbency is irrelevant when it comes to crap."

I believe you've found yourself that elusive blog title, Nicky-boy.