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You are repeating yourself, Gloria

As Christmas approaches I'm spending quite a lot of time in the car (sometimes enjoying stunning snow-frosted landscapes, but that's a different story). At this time of year I confess I listen to Classic FM a bit, as I enjoy the Christmas music. But something is driving me away - an advert voiced by one Gloria Hunniford.

Our Gloria is advertising Benecol, a range of products containing plant stanol which apparently partially blocks the intake of cholesterol in the diet with the useful effect of lowering cholesterol levels.

I have no particular problem with the product (though I've a suspicion that you would need quite a lot of it to have a similar effect to the cholesterol lowering medication you can get from your doctor) - but I am really irritated by the way the advert begins. 'A while ago,' says Gloria, 'I used to have high cholesterol' (or words to that effect). The important thing is that she says 'A while ago I used to have...' Now that's just repeating yourself. Either 'A while ago I had high cholesterol' or 'I used to have high cholesterol' but not both. If consuming Benecol makes you repeat yourself, it's a touch worrying.

Thanks to Rob for pointing out this advert was for Flora Pro-activ, not for Benecol. I was so distracted by the irritating language, I missed the product name!
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Comments

  1. rob24 December 2009 at 09:04

    Hi - the advert is for Flora.proactiv, although there's another similar advert running for Benecol at the moment.

    I actually get annoyed by this advert for a different reason. It's the way she says "so, there's no more debate" and "it's been proven again and again". She comes across as so keen to persuade that it makes me more suspicious about the claims!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brian Clegg24 December 2009 at 09:25

    It shows how much I listen to the adverts. You are right, it's Flora Pro-activ.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ms A24 December 2009 at 22:30

    Well Brian, you can rest assured that at least the badly scripted ad isn't working. Biggest advertising fail = people remember the ad but not the product name...

    Have a great christmas, chuck.

    Niki x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brian Clegg28 December 2009 at 15:13

    Thanks, Niki - hope you have (had) a good one too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nicole.lascurain@healthline.com20 November 2015 at 17:42

    Hi Brian,

    First off, I came across your site and wanted to say thanks for providing a great heart-healthy resource to the community.

    I thought you might find this article helpful to your readers who are trying to lower their cholesterol, as it shows photos of what 100% of your daily value of cholesterol looks like. It’s quite shocking! http://www.healthline.com/health/high-cholesterol/daily-value

    Naturally, I’d be delighted if you share this article on http://brianclegg.blogspot.com/2009/12/you-are-repeating-yourself-gloria.html , and/or share it with your followers on social to help them make better food choices. Either way, keep up the great work Brian!

    All the best,

    Nicole Lascurain | Assistant Marketing Manager
    p: 415-281-3100 | e: nicole.lascurain@healthline.com

    Healthline
    660 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
    www.healthline.com | @Healthline

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brian Clegg20 November 2015 at 17:53

      Hi Nicole,
      I’m in a good mood so I won’t delete your advert, despite your not noticing that the post was about bad use of English, not cholesterol consumption. Unfortunately, though, your web page is out of date. Here’s the recommendation from the 2015 Dietary Guidlines Advisory Committee that the USDA recommendation was based on:

      Previously, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg/day. The 2015 DGAC will not bring forward this recommendation because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol, consistent with the conclusions of the AHA/ACC report.

      You are correct that foods high in transfats, for instance, are bad for cholesterol levels, but consuming cholesterol is no longer considered a problem.

      Delete

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