Nivea - DNAge Hand Cream | TV's Worst Adverts

Nivea - DNAge Hand Cream

11 November 2007 by Silky

Science - itâ€™s going to save us all.

I genuinely believe that. I think science is the only thing that will make the giant environmental shit on our own door step weâ€™re currently having go back up humanityâ€™s back passage.

Mostly I believe this because weâ€™re too lazy to save ourselves. Iâ€™m even too lazy to turn the light off when I close the fridge door, so science solved that one for me. And Iâ€™m too lazy to walk to the recycling bins down the road, so science has made my car more efficient. God, Iâ€™m even too lazy to swim to Florida for my holidays so science made the teleporter (OK, they haven’t done that last one - yet).

Anyway, science is ace at saving things and that’s we all love it.

But you know who traditionally hasn’t given a split atom about science in the past? Women.

Or at least that was until L’Oreal blew the minds of women World-wide with their “Here comes the science bit - concentrate!”. And more recently women were dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st cnetury with the crap-tastic Clear Blue Pregnancy Tester advert (Are they taking the piss? Oh yes, they actually are).

And suddenly women thought “Wow, science! It can save me/tell me if I’m pregnant in a flashy electronic way!”. But mostly they thought “Wow, science can save me!”

Yes, so now women, like Walt Disney before them, have a “science can give me eternal life” fantasy. However, unlike Walt Disney women’s quest for eternal life involves less sleeping next to some McCain’s Micro-chips for the next 1000 years, and more smothering their bodies in cream.

Nivea’s DNAge is one of the latest adverts to combine the power of science and the dream of living forever to part ugly/insecure women from their money:

And DNAge is magical stuff as the Nivea Website tells us, their cream contains:

“…the powerful combination of Folic Acid and Creatine to stimulate cell renewal and help protect the skin cells’ DNA against further external damage.”

But then again, this sort of power is also contained in breakfast cereal and steak.

Either way, what I really love about the new advert for DNAge Hand Cream is the statistics used to support the claims (As always the results of trials are printed in the smallest font available with the lowest contrast at the bottom of the screen):

“60% agreed based on trial of 27 women”.

Yep, 60% of 27 women thought their hands looked younger after rubbing Nivea DNAge into them. Hardly unequivocal is it?

So here’s my advice women, save yourself some cash and have another portion of Special K with a nice juicy steak on the side!

Update

Thanks to Stephen in the comments below for pointing out an error in my original post (now corrected) and for the link to his complaint to the ASA.

For those who don’t have the time (or possibly inclination) to read it, in short the ASA said the advert was (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Bollocks” and it must (paraphrasing again) “never been shown again on punishment of death”.

Good work, Stephen.

9Responses:

Keith

November 12th, 2007 4:48 pm

All these women’s face gunk commercials are the same. What gets me is the ridiculous names they come up with for the miracle ingredient. Boswellox for example… I ask you.
Stephen Heliczer

November 13th, 2007 2:15 pm

I have made the following complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about this kind of advertising:

Referring to a previous upheld complaint:
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_42908.htm

It seems that very similar misleading and pseudo-scientific claims are being made for this product. The disclaimer in small writing at the bottom that the “trial of 60% of 27 people tested noticed a visible difference” in the second part of a two part advert should not excuse the implication throughout of “DNA building/healing properties”. A single “trial” showing that approximately 15 people have perceived a benefit to base these claims on should not be allowed.

This kind of advertising is becoming more and more prevalent and it is very frustrating how advertisers are allowed to sail so close to the wind with misleading claims.
Silky

November 14th, 2007 6:57 am

Cheers for that, Stephen.

My favourite part of the evidence provided by Beiersdorf was that it protected your skin thanks to SPF 15 which, if I remember rightly, isn’t mentioned in the advert.
Steve Heliczer

November 14th, 2007 12:09 pm

Well, it seems to have SPF15 on the front which is as usual made to sound like a “magical scientific ingredient” (presumably Sun Protection Factor 15 suncream - big deal). It part of the usual pseudo-science of active liposome hydrolysed X-microprotein nutricomplexes boswellox variety.
Welsh Anorak

November 22nd, 2007 2:24 pm

Er… isn’t 60% of 27 actually 16.2?
Really?
clangnuts

November 22nd, 2007 3:44 pm

It’s well known in the advertising industry that the scientific claims made by cosmetic companies, rarely if ever hold up to scrutiny. The ASA will often ban these adverts, but only after they have been broadcast - as the ASA don’t pre-approved the validity of adverts in the UK, until afterwards. Retroactive monitoring is only applied. Of course in the meantime, the cosmetic companies have sold bucket loads of products, and netted a tidy profit which more than pays for the advertising/reputation in the publics minds.
Keith

November 22nd, 2007 3:48 pm

I see the ringpiece twitching has begun with the L’Oreal Penelope Cruz adverts. In small print at the bottom of the screen, we now see “Penelope is wearing falsies” when referring to her longer lash mascara commercial and she’s wearing hair extrnsions in a hair care ad. Crock of shit or what ?
Steve Heliczer

November 22nd, 2007 5:09 pm

Whenever I raise this issue while watching TV ads with my family, I usually get the “oh don’t get so wound up about it, its only an advert for a hand cream/shampoo/air freshener/yoghurt for gods sake and stop being such a miserable grumpy old git blah blah”.

I do find it frustrating that large organisations are allowed to blatantly lie and make false claims and that there is no legistlation in place to prevent this, and ASA cannot do anything apart from retrospectively and very politely. Often the wording is designed to IMPLY health benefits but very carefully written to JUST fit within the codes. A recent ruling this week from the ASA on a Danone “bloated feeling” yoghurt highlights this:

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_43592.htm

They get away with it through careful wording and implication only.

I find it depressing that large trusted retailers depend and encourage the lie. I find it depressing that most people seem not that bothered by being lied to - it’s only a hand cream/yoghurt - what does it matter?

I was asked by my wife to search something she read in the Daily Mail (..I know…) “Health” section. It was a supposedly impartial article written by a “journalist” about a new miracle cream sold in a tiny pot for Â£50, which is “selling out everywhere” and as used by “the stars” to replace botox treatments. Athena 7 minute lift is its name. The website is full of the usual carefully written lies in big text, recomendations from doctors (in the employ of the company, of course) and legal disclaimers in tiny writing at the bottom. A little Google research shows that this is yet another carefully marketed con. Why do newspapers allow articles (unannounced advertorials) in their “health” section? Do they/the journalists get a kick-back? Why is this not illegal? Why does Steve McLaren get a two million quid payoff for being fucking useless? Thats another story. The “system” stinks as much as Glade Touch and Fresh.

Keep up the great work on this site.

Steve (miserable-grumpy-old-git-who-needs-to-get-a-life) Heliczer
Keith

November 22nd, 2007 5:22 pm

Oh but come on Steve, it’s hard being a woman… Here’s a reprint of my posting about just some of their problems:

You’ve got to give it to them, wimmin have a lot to put up with. The pain of childbirth, the worry that their plastic pots come out of the dishwasher still wet forcing them to dry by hand (see TV commercial for Finish) and the daily choice to use products from the house of Olay, Nivea or Loreal.

Tough world, tough choices, Nutrillium, Boswellox or 15% added Oxygen ?

Surely everyone, men, women, dogs and cats at some time suffer with heartburn, indigestion, constipation or even wet plastic ware yet, it’s women who are being targeted by the ad men for relief to all these irritating and debilitating conditions.

Dulco Ease (stool softener). No blokes in that commercial. Actimel pro biotic daily drink containing either Bifidus Digestivum, El Coli Immunitas and the latest Bifidus Regularis (prize for the most ridiculous made up name). The women in that commercial are complaining about always feeling bloated and un-feminine.

No blokes here either, so what are these women doing to contact these conditions ?

Now, you can buy jars of “soluble” fibre to mix up in water. None of the commercials explain why you would want to do this, just lots of “wimmin” floating about in water looking “relieved”. If only they knew that a slice of brown bread, a jacket potato or a nice bowl of All Bran would have quite the same effect.

Then, the crowning glory of commercials made by men with a sense of humour for women who need relief, we’ve the butch Gaviscon fireman, shooting his white sticky fluid down the distressed damsel’s throat !

What a feeling he quips.

Girls, next time you’re watching an ad break in the middle of your favourite soap. Take a moment to think just how much piss those ad men are taking whilst trying to part you with your money