'ANTIBACTERIAL' SOAP AND TRUTH BEHIND IT

Being in the business of manufacturing and retailing genuine natural skin care products, made with USDA certified organic ingredients, Herbally Radiant has been trying to create awareness among its customers about the growing misleading marketing campaigns, especially when it comes to cosmetics or other beauty enhancing products. These trick consumers into making uninformed decisions. They may waste money on a product or service that can't provide what they are looking for, or they might be unaware of the pitfalls involved in the product or service. Harmful, deceptive ads may involve apparent guarantees that are contradicted in fine print, false warranties, hidden costs or serious health risks.

We at Herbally Radiant also have organic bath soaps that make face or body washing a far more healthy routine than what is conveyed by soaps or cleaning agents with harsh chemical ingredients with ‘promises’ of great beauty benefits. A recent write up by Botanie Soap, manufactures of excellent natural soaps, was quite informative on the issue of subtly deceptive marketing tricks that try to exploit the emotional factors. It said, “just as cable TV ads will suggest you’re being selfish for not buying more insurance to cover “final expenses,” big soap companies will accuse you of not loving your family if you don’t buy the right product to protect them from the illness in the world.

We’re not in the insurance business, or cable television, but we can tell you there is no one skincare product to make your family bullet-proof. There are products advertised as doing just that, but the truth is, they don’t do what they say, and companies touting these products are the last ones you should listen to.

Marketers want to touch you where you live. The point of marketing is not to appeal to reason, but to emotions. Love of family – and the corresponding fear of never being able to do enough to keep them safe – are among the most powerful. And so, if a company is making a product that will kill all germs that could ever make your children sick, how could you not buy it? Knowing this product is out there, could you say you really love your family if you don’t? Just to be safe?

Describing the fallacy of the other marketing claims, Botanie Soap adds, “we tell customers that organic soap isn’t medicine, cautioning them not to be fooled by the claims of ‘antibacterial’ soap makers. Beyond the fact that antibacterial soap doesn’t do what it says, the marketing chooses, rather dishonorably, to exploit two specific things: 1) consumers’ general lack of science knowledge, and 2) consumers’s fear they’re missing something.”

We hear all the time such claims skincare advertising: Kills Germs. Keeps Your Family Safe From Germs. The pivotal word in these claims is germs – it’s what’s being killed, and what you’re being saved from. But germs are what, exactly?

The R&D team of Herbally Radiant agrees with Botanie Soap that actually germs aren’t one thing; it’s an inclusive phrase for microorganisms that can cause disease, also known as pathogens. Included in this category are the terms actually used in contemporary science –bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. It doesn’t take much knowledge of any of these to realize nothing as innocuous as soap is capable of complete protection.

Even if Dial or Bristol-Meyers were able to find the magic ingredients to kill all bacteria and viruses, fungi and protozoa – magic ingredients that don’t exist – the very nature of washing would nullify them. And, unlike creams or lotions, known as leave-on products, soap is usually rinsed off. Whatever active ingredients it contains don’t stay on the skin very long and the minuscule amount that’s left behind isn’t enough to have an effect. Corporate marketing isn’t concerned, though, that their products do what they say, only that you believe they do.”