While the Daily Mail is carrying a couple of stories about Rodial’s Arm Sculpt, The Daily Express sees fit to describe it as a ‘cream to give you arms just like Michelle’s (Obama)’. Michelle is extremely toned around the arm area and there is no way in the world a cream can be the cause of this, just in case you wondered. It’s down to gym time, pure and simple. What a cream can do is give you smoother skin, get rid of KP (that causes those little bumps) and make the area look more hydrated and possibly more toned. It won’t give you muscles. No way, no how. So, any thoughts of slapping on a cream and developing a presidential profile – banish them. Bearing in mind that the ASA gave Rodial a slap on the wrist for their Tummy Tuck Sticks earlier in the year, you’d think that maybe toning down the promises might have been high on the agenda. It promises to retexture and resculpt (but not, I might add, give muscle). I get the retexture bit, but not the resculpt. One of the ASA’s clear rules stated in their CAP code is that ads that should not contain claims that weight or fat can be lost from specific parts of the body. As far as I can tell, it’s the mainstream press who have given this product it’s airing and there aren’t any ads that I can find for it, so despite going against an ASA ruling, because there is no ad, there is no infringement. So, fair enough. And, in fairness, Rodial themselves haven’t said their cream gives you arms like Michelle O; it’s the media pictures of Mrs O next to pictures of Arm Sculpt that have and that lies at the door of the gushing press. And, the product does contain ingredients to deal with skin bumps, although their own stats claim that it only reduces skin roughness by 43%. Also from their site is this claim ‘Caffeine and coenzyme A stimulate the transformation of fat and transportation of fatty acids to firm and sculpt the upper arm area.’ I don’t actually know how to translate that into something meaningful. Fat transformation? I’ve never heard of it.
Believe it or not, this post didn’t start off about the Arm Sculpt – there’s a newer product sitting on their site called Skin Bleach. Now, any right thinking person knows that the words skin and bleach when used in one sentence don’t really add up to anything desirable (in fact, all I can think about is poor Katie Piper but I will point out that was acid not bleach). But to be honest, it isn’t just Rodial who is on this whitening kick. Hyperpigmentation wasn’t even a word used in beauty when I started out. I think we’re crazy to even buy into it from any brand. Skin Bleach, when I researched the trademarking, comes under the US Trademark classification:
Similar to this
I don’t know enough about the intricacies of trademarking and product description to make a comment – this is for factual information only and is readily available on www.trademarkia.com. But, back on the Rodial site, there are no clinicals or stats to be seen. It’s a big name for a product that has yet to prove itself.
Even if whitening treatments worked on skin, who wants a face devoid of any pigmentation at all? Eerie, washed out faces mistakenly confusing white skin for youthful skin. It’s all wrong to me. Pigmentation is normal; some people can end up with excessive pigmentation problems due to over-sunning but that is never anything that a cream alone can deal with. I have some freckles, some pigmentation marking and I don’t care! Really do not care. They’re just part of my face.
Before it was hyperpigmentation, it was skin redness. Brands were careful not to label their products as a cure for rosacea, but ultimately that’s what they were getting at in their roundabout way. So, what’s the next flaw? We’re not luminous enough, white enough, tanned enough, thin enough or unwrinkled enough. We are, however, too red, too blotchy, too pigmented, too crinkled, too pale, too tanned and too, er, normal. Sometimes I despair.
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15 comments
Well lightening skin tone is and always will be popular. In the West, it’s to get rid of freckles/age spots. In the East, where it’s far more popular, it’s to achieve the ideal of porcelain white skin.
However I’m incredibly surprised that they used the word ‘bleach’ in their branding which calls to mind the incredibly dangerous hydroquinone/mercury-based creams that were (and still are) popular in African and Asian countries – basically designed, as you said, to strip the skin of all pigment.
Actual ‘bleaching’ ingredients are now illegal over-the-counter and all brands (even Asian ones where lightening skin tone is very popular) make it abundantly clear that these ‘lightening’ or ‘brightening’ products are safe and intended for localised pigmenatation concerns – not to be used all over.
They are, of course, used all over by lots of people but still – the brands are careful not to use the word ‘bleach’. It calls to mind the image of damaging the skin, not to mention all sorts of messy race issues that the word ‘brightening’ avoids.
The mind boggles really… what the hell is a Western brand doing using that word in their branding when even the most popular skin lightening brands (Shiseido, Lauder, Olay…) avoid that word like the plague?
Firstly they’re selling to a culture where lightening pigmentation isn’t very popular and then they’re advertising it like THAT?
Idiots.
Not sure it’s idiocy tb fair, but more a ‘dramatic’ title that is maybe misguided. Rodials USP is attention grabbing titles so it’s in keeping with the rest of their products.
I’m a trade mark lawyer. I’m not sure what you mean when you say that you researched the trademarking. Do you mean that you found a trade mark registration for SKIN BLEACH? Or that you found bleaching preparations listed alongside cosmetics in certain trade mark specifications?
What you quoted is the class heading for class 3 goods. Trade mark specifications are drafted for particular goods and services. The majority of the world’s trade mark registers use the Nice classification system, which is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
Falling in Nice Class 3 are all the goods you listed. It may seem odd that cosmetics and bleach are in the same class but it’s just a method of organisation.
In general I’m totally with you on the issue of misleadingly marketed products — and I have a particular distaste for disingenuous marketing language that creates the appearance of meaning but NO ACTUAL MEANING, because of course if you don’t actually say it does XYZ, then the data proving it doesn’t do XYZ are irrelevant! Yay!
The caffeine bit is a great example of this. Two things are known about caffeine:
1. Caffeine has been shown to shrink fat cells. In test tubes. In a laboratory. But unless you are planning on taking your fat cells out of your body and soaking them in coffee (eeeew), that doesn’t mean much — there’s no really solid evidence that shows the caffeine can penetrate the skin well enough to shrink those cells while they’re still in your thighs. Or arms. Whatever.
2. Caffeine increases blood flow to muscles. Which might, if you have just done a lot of exercise, stimulate the “transportation of fatty acids” along with everything else going to and coming out of muscle tissue during and after exercise. And coenzyme A does indeed help with the transportation of fatty acids — from cell cytoplasm to cell mitochondria. Not from your arm into the atmosphere. And there is no evidence (that I have seen) that it works topically.
The problem (IMHO) with language like this is that it has just enough truth in it to qualify claims as being possible, and then the people who write this stuff stand back and watch while consumers seize on the claims and assume they mean what common-sense language would dictate they mean, not what is only “true” in terms of technicalities and lab circumstances. (Sorry, didn’t mean to go on at such length, but I snipe at marketing language regularly on my own blog and it’s a particular thorn in my side.)
Speaking as someone who talks to many women about their skin, pigmentation is a valid issue. Hormones and sun can cause embarrassing dark areas that are a legitimate concern. None of us likes to be different, to have something “odd” stand out. I think that’s the ideal customer for these products.
As for poreless, waxy, one-toned skin… that’s just creepy.
Whitening products are huge here in Japan! I find it kind of funny since in the west when summer comes we get a huge surge in fake-tan product promotion – in the east it’s all about how to stay white through the summer.
But yeah… “Skin Bleach”? Really?
MQ – yes you are right re the Trademarking – and thanks for pointing out the organisation method – that’s interesting – without going back I think it was a US trademark that I read. Weird that they bundle everything together like that.
Jen, I think what I meant more was incidental pigmentation.. I know there are women who have problems with pigmentation markings particularly when it is over the top lip etc, a common place, and it is understandable to look for a way to reduce it. But I do also believe that pigmentation contributes to what makes a face characterful so the wiping out off all pigmentation is a horrible thought to me.
I’m not sure how Rodial got my mail address since I never bought anything from them, but I do get their mailings and I often cringe at their claims.
And talk about using our insecurities to sell us stuff!
I’m actually disgusted that Rodial have the nerve to bring out a ‘Skin Bleach’ range. In the Asian community there is a huge stigma surrounding dark skin and I can (sadly) see many girls going for products like this.
I dont think we should get our panties in a twist. There’s no way shieseido or clarins are going to use similiar terms for their whitening lines as they have soft and safe brand images with lots of fancy terms for serums and elixirs. Looking at Rodial – its obvious that they take a risk with product names that grab attention; Boob Job, Tummy Tuck, Crash Diet – only fitting that they have a whitening line and call it Skin Bleach (it was never going to be Cell Illuminaire – or such nonsense)? Personally, the name is just that, a name. The proof is in the using and if it brightens and evens skin tone (hello clinique with the egg getting paler and paler…!) then great, if not then it will fade away into the discount stores.
You tell this to the endless parade of Eastern European and Asian women (and a few men I might add), who come into the store where I work, looking for whitening products. Whether its pigmentation or they just want the entire face and neck to be paler, they insist there must be something they can use.
Look at the cover models for the Asian bridal mags. The girls are invariably fair skinned, further emphasising the message. It seems to be a cultural thing; fairer skin is more desirable to some.
Have you heard of Lightenex? I see this product advertised at the independent pharmacies in areas that are predominantly EE/Asian. It promises to whiten the skin. How safe or effective it is, I’ve no idea. I can understand the desire to correct sun damage and there are some reputable products out there that one can try. However wanting to do what we used call a “Michael Jackson” on your skin, is difficult to understand.
Great article!
Rodial is horrible with their naming, marketing and their attacks on anyone who dares criticize them. And the products are generally overpriced crap. Just an awful company, full stop. And I’m annoyed that they keep gettin away with it!!
In my opinion they are treading on a very fine line with regard to the Arm Sculpt. As you say, there are clear guidelines from the ASA that ads shouldn’t claim fat or weight can be lost from the specific parts of their body. Although there’s no ad – they do have a website and the description of the product on their site certainly implies weight loss from the arm area, e.g.
“to firm and sculpt the upper arm area”.. “stimulates fat burning”.. and so on. I think one could argue that the online description clearly implies fat reduction in the arm area. I think it’s just a matter of time before someone (consumer or competitor) calls them out on this..!
Like millions of women (and men) around the world, I suffer from a skin condition known as melasma. It is characterised by patches of hyperpigmentation – usually on the face.
While I don’t like the term ‘skin bleach’ – I would try this product if I though it would help. I’d like to think that this is market that is being targeted by this product….