Olay – Eve Cameron the New Nadine Baggott
11 June 2008 by SilkyWhat really gets me with Olay is that they keep banging on about “pentapeptides this” and “pentapeptides that” – as if it’s their greatest achievement.
Clearly with the unveiling of Eve Cameron “Beauty Journalist” as the new Nadine Baggott “Celebrity Beauty Editor” (don’t worry, you retain your Most Ridiculous Job Title crown, Nadine) they’ve managed something far more impressive in their labs.
Because unless I’m very much mistaken I recognise Eve’s “head tilted slightly to the left” presentation style, her tussled hair and her seeming inability to smile. Aren’t you Nadine Baggott, Eve?
Have Olay perfected human cloning or are they knocking out gynoids like the do in Stepford.
Either way it’s frightening.
But enough of that, I’ve got more important fish to fry. What really impressed me about this advert is that report she gets out of her filing cabinet. You know the one I mean, the exciting one revealed at the World Congress of Dermatology?
Well, Eve is very excited about it anyway.
It reveals that “pentapeptides are as effective as retinol in reducing lines and wrinkles”.
This is very good news for Olay because they’ve just bought a shit load of pentapeptides from a bloke they met in a pub in Chepstow. Apparently he gets them from a Russian farmer who harvests them from beneath a badgers foreskin.
Obviously not, I’ve just made up all those “facts” about pentapeptides. Easily done, though.
As Eve was so excited about the report I thought I’d have a quick look at the World Congress of Dermatology’s Web site, just to see what the vibe was over there with the skin doctors and all.
What first struck me on the home page were the very prominent names of the event’s sponsors at the top: L’Oreal, Johnson & Johnson and, oh, who’s that, P&G Beauty.
Can you guess why that’s interesting? Can you guess what P&G Beauty manufacture?
That’s right – Olay.
Come on, you’ve heard of Olay, right? It’s the one with all the pentapeptides in it. Yeah, I knew you knew.
But hang on. If you think for one minute that I’m suggesting that the World Congress of Dermatology (sponsored by P&G Beauty) announcing that pentapeptides are “bloody brilliant” (I’m paraphrasing there) just as Olay are touting them as “the hottest anti-ageing ingredients around” is anything other than pure coincidence, then you’re very wrong.
Very wrong, my friend. Pure coincidence.
Because in reality it’s very much a chicken and egg scenario. After all, can you say with any certainty which came first: the scientists discovering the effectiveness of pentapeptides in the battle against ageing or P&G Beauty bank rolling the scientists week long jolly in Buenos Aires?
Can you? Can you?
I thought not.
Just How Bad is this Ad?
(16 votes, average: 4.38 out of 5)
14Responses:
Jonny Chestwig
Said on the 11 June 2008
A fine piece of investigative journalism, Private Eye will be beating a path to your door as we speak, Bravo Sir!
I can’t find it now but I’m sure somebody did some research that said that you get more pentapeptides by rubbing a raw potato on your face than you would out of skin cream, says it all really!
Silky
Said on the 11 June 2008
In some ways Jonny I feel like I betrayed the basic tenets of TVs Worst Adverts by actually doing some research.
I think it’s cheapened this whole site.
Not heard that one about the potato, I do hope it’s true. One thing is for sure rubbing a carrot on your face doesn’t make you as orange as any of the self-tan products.
Mike Empuria
Said on the 11 June 2008
This is why I like TWA so much! It’s read and written by people that obviously think alike. Like Jonny (I’ve got a date with Smithybobbins) Chestwig I thought that this was a piss of journalism that deserves higher praise. But like out lord and master Silky, I thought WTF! “What’s this reaserchy crap”?
I now have a dilemma: Stick with the site in case of more potato facial advice or leave like a rat/boat before it becomes the Gruniad. I’m all in a quandary!
Silky
Said on the 11 June 2008
If I promise no more research and more slander will you stay, please Mike?
Dave
Said on the 11 June 2008
This one’s less plastic than Nadine, but not much. Do not worry young Silky about doing ‘research’ just shows this up to be the load of cack we know it is.
Gina
Said on the 12 June 2008
I rubbed a raw potato on my face and now I look 30 years younger. I’m not even 30.
Perhaps pentapeptides really do work, and Eve Cameron is actually Nadine Baggot? The advertising company didn’t want to destroy our minds with this startling transformation so she is forced to live a lie. Ooh, I feel a novel coming on.
Louise
Said on the 13 June 2008
A c4 programme just said “so, pentapeptides. Penta being 5, and peptide being a protein molecule. What does it do? nothing. you may as well put a piece of steak on your face” wonderful. oh, and antiwrinkle creams don’t work. quelle surprise.
R E Krishna
Said on the 19 June 2008
Pentapeptides DO work excuse me. They work best though if, like potatoes, you mash them first and eat them with sausages.
Mike wimbury
Said on the 30 June 2008
Pentapeptides only work in such strengths that two thirds of the testers fall down and start frothing at the mouth.
Jonny Chestwig
Said on the 30 June 2008
Does anyone remember the wrinkle cream that actually contained something called “Boswelox”, literally the most moronic pseudo-scientific name for something ever.
Cath
Said on the 1 July 2008
I think L’Oreal came up with Boswelox. They obvious thought they’d make up a word that sounds like Botox so it’s bound to make people buy it.
Cyril Sneer
Said on the 22 September 2008
I can’t stand this advert.
Who the FUCK is Nadine Baggot?
I love the made up bullshit in this ad, “Pentapeptides”
You might be thinking “what are pentapeptides?”
I’ll explain, they are a made up buzz word that all women believe to be the next miracle anti-ageing cream.
It’s actually made from “the urine of a barn owl,the semen from a lithuanianan gypsy and mayonnaise”.
Pauliwalli
Said on the 26 October 2008
Err.. and who the FUCK is Nadine Baggot anyway?… get the fuck out of my face with your unscientific mumbo jumbo…. polypeptides?? well why dont you rub a Chicken on your face to thick silly bitch?….. Ladies.. try to google the true scientific expression of these silly plays on science words first before you allow yourselves to be taken in by this bamboozling claptrap that wouldn’t even enter a GCSE exam paper in Chemistry… unbelievably bad form to talk such rubbish on TV.. every scientist roles over in laughter at these contrived scientific expressions that mean jack!…
Scottie
Said on the 5 February 2009
Eve Cameron does exist, worked with her mid 1980s at Revlon before she moved on to Cosmo and She, and she knows her stuff.
But whether this ad has a morsel of truth in it I know not. I think it’s all smoke/mirrors/emperor’s new clothes when it comes to anti-ageing products. Are there any beauty journalists out there who have given a bad write up to a product in their magazines (no of course not, especially when the income for that magazine is generated from ad space for beauty products/fragrances).
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