Shampoos Are Not Mostly Detergent!

Another in our series of “actual ads” from old beauty magazines. You’ll have to read the fine print on this one…

Nostalgic nonsense

Forget about the bittersweet nostalgia that anyone over 40 would associate with this classic 70’s brand. (Trust us, this was a big deal at the time…)

Forget about the strangely quaint notion of using the America’s Jr. Miss as Breck’s brand spokesperson… (Ah, those were such simpler times… *sigh*)

Forget about the fact that she’s inexplicably holding a guitar… (?????)

Forget all this and focus on the technical claim at the bottom of this 1970’s Glamour advertisement:

“…The only leading shampoo that isn’t mostly detergent.”

Huh? Doesn’t that beg the question: if it’s not detergent, then WHAT IS IT???

Shampoo ingredients

Shampoos primarily consist of water and detergent, in that order. Oh sure, there are several other ingredients that are important. But these products have always been MOSTLY water or detergent. (NOTE: Yes we know that there are funky solid shampoos, but those are few and far between.) So, is the point of this ad to clue us in that Breck isn’t mostly detergent, and therefore, it contains more water than the other leading brands? There doesn’t seem to be much advantage to that!

Baffled by Breck

Or, is the point that Breck contains some kind of miracle ingredient other than water or detergent? If so, why not tell us what that is??? Either way, it seems to be an odd point of differentiation. More likely, it’s poor copywriting by an advertising agency that didn’t understand their product very well. We’d never see that kind of misleading advertising today, now would we? (Yeah, right…)

Anyway, that’s enough for now. We have to get back our enthusiastic outdoor life of horseback riding, skiing and swimming. (According to the fine print, that’s what the Breck Girl does.)