SED 17: Washing Out The Meaning

[kerravonsen]

This morning I washed my hair with anti-dandruff shampoo. The bottle said "antidandruff medicated shampoo". Ooooh, medicated! Does that mean it's different from other anti-dandruff shampoos?

To the dictionary, Robin!

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

  Medicate \Med"i*cate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Medicated}; p. pr. &
     vb. n. {Medicating}.] [L. medicatus, p. p. of medicare,
     medicari. See {Medicable}.]
     1. To tincture or impregnate with anything medicinal; to
        drug. ``Medicated waters.'' --Arbuthnot.
  
     2. To treat with medicine.

So, to say it's "medicated" means.... it's a treatment. For dandruff. Which is what "anti-dandruff" means.
Holy tautology, Batman, it's a tautology!

I loathe advertising-speak. So long as they are not outright lying, they can be as deceptive as they want, tossing in feel-good content-free words with abandon, or rendering perfectly good words content-free by using them as a tautology.

I prefer spades to be called spades, not agricultural real-metal-bladed natural-wooden-handled spades.

Comments

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Medicated just usually means they aren't relying on natural herbal remedies such as peppermint or tea tree but have an added drug to treat the condition. It is not tautology just extra information that they have to put on because of labelling requirements i.e. it is a legal necessity not a marketing ploy.

[kerravonsen]

Reference?

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

I don't have a reference, but I do remember my sister who studied advertising laughing over the distinctions drawn over that word. She said that according to her textbook (and I have no clue how up to date it was, or what legal system it was describing), if you didn't include the word "medicated" and it included anything other than refined versions of naturally-included ingredients, it really knocked up your liability in any lawsuits.

I don't know whether it's flat-out illegal, and I don't know the details, but there does seem to be something to the above comment.

Doesn't make your frustration at the language less valid. Katie was laughing out of frustration, because she knew those "all-natural" products were every bit as dangerous as the medicated ones. It's a stupid distinction, but one the law forced them to draw.