Natural & Hypoallergenic - Beyond Advertising Jargon
"It's Natural!"
"It's Hypoallergenic"
So it must be good for you right?
Wrong. Sharks are natural and they're not necessarily good for us to swim with! And hypoallergenic - just whose allergy, what allergy and which trigger is such a term meant to cover?!
These terms are commonly used to reassure the customer into thinking a product has Mother Nature's blessing. In a way, everything is natural if you want to be very reductionist. Even the computer I am writing with is natural because a human made it and humans are natural and the products that make the computer are natural and it is a natural result of a natural being doing a natural activity - making something. So let's get serious about using 'natural'. Natural is a cover-all term that sounds safe.
What natural and hypoallergenic are not: they are not a term of art, they are not a legal term, and they are not a legislative term; nor are they a scientific term. They are simply two concocted jargons that get over-used in a context that makes people mistakenly feel comfortable about a product's origins and promises. Most importantly, they are NOT a term that is defined by regulatory authorities, which means you can't rely on it as a standard by which anything has been measured. And just because something is natural, doesn't mean it's good for you... :)
Actions You Can Take
Be alert and look beyond that reassuring "natural" label. Use the resources gathered here to help you to sort the wheat from the chaff.
(Views expressed here are Felicity's.)
"It's Hypoallergenic"
So it must be good for you right?
Wrong. Sharks are natural and they're not necessarily good for us to swim with! And hypoallergenic - just whose allergy, what allergy and which trigger is such a term meant to cover?!
These terms are commonly used to reassure the customer into thinking a product has Mother Nature's blessing. In a way, everything is natural if you want to be very reductionist. Even the computer I am writing with is natural because a human made it and humans are natural and the products that make the computer are natural and it is a natural result of a natural being doing a natural activity - making something. So let's get serious about using 'natural'. Natural is a cover-all term that sounds safe.
What natural and hypoallergenic are not: they are not a term of art, they are not a legal term, and they are not a legislative term; nor are they a scientific term. They are simply two concocted jargons that get over-used in a context that makes people mistakenly feel comfortable about a product's origins and promises. Most importantly, they are NOT a term that is defined by regulatory authorities, which means you can't rely on it as a standard by which anything has been measured. And just because something is natural, doesn't mean it's good for you... :)
Actions You Can Take
Be alert and look beyond that reassuring "natural" label. Use the resources gathered here to help you to sort the wheat from the chaff.
(Views expressed here are Felicity's.)
posted by Felicity @ 8:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home