You Wouldn't See It

When the makers of dandruff shampoo Nizoral decided to launch an ad campaign featuring a black-robed Lutheran minister recommending the dandruff shampoo, they failed to win favour with one target group - the Danish clergy.

Denmark's priests call the advert poorly done and have complained to the shampoo's producer.

The priests' problem with the advert - in addition to the bogus recommendation - is that the female priest pictured is not a Danish priest at all. Her vestments, which lack the Danish collar, indicate that she is more likely a Swede, the Danish priests' organisation says.

After learning of the advert for 'the one true dandruff shampoo', the foreman for the Danish Association of Priests, Helle Christiansen, contacted its producers, international pharmaceutical producer Jannsen-Cilag, to find out whether any priests had actually tried the shampoo.

They hadn't, and Christiansen said that discredited the advertising technique.

"The advertisement indicates that our priests have taken an active position regarding Nizoral shampoo, and that isn't the case," she said. "Therefore, the advert is misleading - and laughable. Danish priests have such a big white collar that you'd never see their dandruff - if they had it."

Jannsen-Cilag marketing manager Jens Sandstrøm said to Ritzau that the advert was created by a Swedish agency as part of a joint-Scandinavian campaign, and that it had not caused any problems in either Norway or Sweden.

He pointed out that the detail about the Danish priests' collars meant that the message might have been lost on some Danes.

"The intention was to use the metaphor of the black outfit - but we made the mistake of not considering Danish priests' white collar," said Sandstrøm, a Dane who lives and works in Sweden.

He said the advert would continue its run as scheduled.

The Copenhagen Post, November 1, 2005.