“May cause skin and scalp irritation, hair breakage and eye injury.” If you’re a Black woman and you listen to urban radio, you’re probably very familiar with this group of side effects. It’s listed at the end of just about every radio commercial for black hair care products. I’ve heard it daily for years and it always makes me giggle. The things we do to our hair… Well, I was in the car today and I heard one of these commercials, and as always — giggle, giggle. And then right after, a commercial came on for Hershey’s. I didn’t know Hershey’s actually advertised candy bars — I mean I can’t remember ever hearing a Hershey’s commercial on the radio before — but maybe that’s because they never caught my attention like this one did. I don’t remember much about the commercial, but at the end of it, there was a woman speaking quickly in one of those low “side effect” voices and she said, “Candy is a treat. Please consume in moderation.”
No really, it REALLY said that, word for word. Please e-mail me if you’ve heard it… Are we that bad off as a country that we’ve gotta have warnings on candy commercials? Are we abusing candy to the extent that we need to be reminded not to overdose? I really don’t know what else to say about that, except… wow.
Wow.