It's winter time in Colorado, which means time to buy stock in hand lotion. Even someone with naturally oily skin such as myself ends up with dry, scaly hands when heaters turn on for the season.
My wife got me some lotion to take to work, and I was just looking at the label. It is Neutrogena's "Norwegian Formula Fast Absorbing Hand Cream". "Developed with dermatologists", the back of the bottle proclaims. But, why "Norwegian formula"? What is so special about Norway that would make a hand lotion developed there better than, say, a "Swiss formula" hand lotion? Do all Norwegians have "perfectly soft, supple, smooth hands" (to quote the bottle) thanks to their world-renowned hand lotion formula?
Perhaps it's as my wife says. Americans equate "high culture" with "European", but since the Swiss thing and the French thing have been overdone, they picked another country. Perhaps there were involved marketing meetings where they discussed what country they would use next.
What about Denmark?
Hmm. "Danish Formula." No, sounds like a pastry. We'd have law suits from people seeing "danish" and trying to eat it for breakfast, we'd have to have a whole awareness campaign about not eating hand lotion...
Sweden?
"Swedish Formula." I don't know, makes me think of the Swedish Chef.
Maybe we could get the Swedish Chef to market it for us!
No, the licensing fees alone would bury us. Besides, we're selling skin care products, not food, remember?
How about...looking at a map of Europe...Finland?
Finland, Finland, Finland... "Finnish Formula"? Sounds like something you'd use to treat wood, not skin.
I've got it! Norway! "Norwegian Formula." It's still white European, but has a bit of an exotic sound to it.
Why, that's brilliant! Good work, everyone! Let's break for lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment