Last night, I was watching TV, and a dandruff shampoo commercial came on. The usual advertising slickness ensued, and then they had their tagline: “Our shampoo makes flakes go away”.
I really, really wish that were true. I can think of a lot of flakes I’d use it on.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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April 19th, 2005 at 11:40 pm
For the ones that are not USAian, what does flake mean when it doesn’t mean flake?
April 20th, 2005 at 3:47 am
Shampoos are getting more and more effective, isn’t it!
April 20th, 2005 at 5:13 am
Flake: noun. Slang. A somewhat eccentric person; an oddball.
from dictionary.reference.com
It can also have a slightly stronger connotation, meaning someone who has a tenuous grip on reality.
CJSF
April 20th, 2005 at 8:14 am
Berkeley, a flake or a flaky person is a someone who is unreliable, stupid, crazy or all of the above.
April 20th, 2005 at 8:27 am
Berkeley, a “flake” is a good synonym for a woo-woo, though not exclusive to them.
April 20th, 2005 at 8:50 am
It indeed feels like an inside joke… If we go on http://www.dictionary.com, we can find that definition for “flake”:
flake
n.
1. A flat thin piece or layer; a chip.
2. Archaeology. A stone fragment removed from a core or from another flake by percussion or pressure, serving as a preform or as a tool or blade itself.
3. A small piece; a bit.
4. A small crystalline bit of snow.
5. Slang. A somewhat eccentric person; an oddball.
6. Slang. Cocaine.
(from http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=flake)
Seems somewhat obvious to me that the intended meaning was the fifth, and even more obvious when we know what the content of the site is, especially the “debunking” sections. If that’s what was intented, I want that shampoo too!!
April 21st, 2005 at 12:00 am
Ok, I think I understand a flake of what it means now.
However: Woo-woo does not appear in the dictionary reference… Wou-wou does, it is some kind of gibbon. Interesting.
Btw: Does the commercial say anything about how the shampoo works?
April 21st, 2005 at 8:25 am
Some of the perscription anti-dandruf shampoos use topical steriods. They are for short term use only though. I doubt “Head&Shoulders” uses anything like that.
April 21st, 2005 at 10:54 am
Head and shoulders uses selenium sulfide. Neutrogena and similar shampoos use solubilized coal tar extract. I don’t know specifically how either chemical (or possibly chemicals in the case of Neutrogena) reduce flaking.
April 22nd, 2005 at 1:12 am
Selenium sulfide keeps the flaky people away?
April 24th, 2005 at 7:11 pm
Berkeley: the joke is that we WISH the shampoo would rid us of flakey people instead of flakes of dandruff (dead skin cells from the scalp). No shampoo really performs this function, obviously.
From: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682258.html
“Selenium sulfide, an anti-infective agent, relieves itching and flaking of the scalp and removes the dry, scaly particles that are commonly referred to as dandruff or seborrhea. It is also used to treat tinea versicolor, a fungal infection of the skin.”
April 25th, 2005 at 2:33 am
To elaborate on ZorkFox’s comment: dandruff is caused by a relatively harmless fungal infection of the scalp. Selenium sulphide (apologies for the European spelling) is a generic antimicrobial agent. The topical steroids mentioned by gopher65 will typically be not so much steroids, but inhibitors of fungal steroid biosynthesis (these would be compounds like econazole, which is also in athlete’s foot powder). Fungi use a sterol called ergosterol in much the same way that mammals use cholesterol (it regulates membrane fluidity). Inhibition of the biosynthesis of ergosterol causes the fungi to stop growing (i.e. it has a fungistatic effect); this gives your immune system the chance to destroy them.
April 27th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
Wow. When I wrote that blog entry, it was pretty much just to be silly. I never thought I’d learn so much when I posted it!
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Hi
Very good stuff. They have been around a long time. – http://www.allsteroidsworld.com
I just got an order of sust 250 and Deca from them.
See you
April 15th, 2009 at 6:06 am
My fellow on Orkut shared this link with me and I’m not dissapointed at all that I came to your blog.