Tuesday 19 July 2005

“Because I’m worth it!” – who says?

I’ve just used a particular shampoo to wash my hair “because I’m worth it” and later I’m going to moisturise my face with a particular cream, again “because I’m worth it”. Actually, I think I’m worth one of those wonderful Klorane shampoos and some Crème de la Mer, but I can’t afford those products, so I’m only worth a certain level of luxury.

“Because I’m worth it!” – who on earth came up with that slogan? Some kid who was born the day Thatcher came to power and who’s grown up to become one of those selfish, inconsiderate people who wouldn’t dream of giving up their seats to an older person or a pregnant woman on the underground? It's the thin end of the wedge. Start thinking like that and nothing is too good for you and everyone else can go to hell.

“Because I’m worth it!” is also something one shouldn’t say about oneself, like “intelligent”, “beautiful”, “kind”, “sensitive”, “elegant”, etc. etc. One of those things that only other people can apply to us. Let someone else say whether I’m worth it.

Who knows what we’re worth or what we deserve? Shakespeare says, in Hamlet, “Use every man after his desert and who shall scape whipping?” Maybe we deserve to be slapped.

In the meantime, let me slap the creators of that mindless, dangerous slogan. They're definitely worth it.

18 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. What has always cracked me up about that slogan is the false sense of luxury it tries so hard to evoke...after all, it is for a hair dye that you use at home and that costs less than $10. Anyone with the money would probably rather get their hair done in a salon.

    And it is ludicrous that they get the likes of (ack...whatshername! The famous blonde actress?) to promote it. Like I'm convinced she dyes her own hair at home just like me. HA! So my slap goes out to whatshername, who should be ashamed of herself. She KNOWS my hair will not end up looking like hers.

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  3. I had left the slappiest comment ... I mean it was MEAN. And I felt guilty so I deleted it. But you would have liked it, J. xoxoxoxo

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  4. You're right, R, that brand is hardly the epitome of luxury. So, in fact, it is an insult! It's saying to women, "You're only worth that much!" I got it wrong. LOL! Or maybe not.

    Who is the actress that promotes the blond dye? Is it Charlize Theron? The dark one is advertised by Andie McDowell (so airbrushed as to be unrecognizable), and Claudia Schiffer does one of the moisturisers, I think. Let's slap them all!

    M, I did read your comment (I get email notifications) and I loved it. It wasn't that mean. You shouldn't have removed it.

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  5. I could be wrong, but I remember reading about the history of that slogan. (It used to be "Because you're worth it," if I recall correctly.) L'Oreal is actually more expensive than its drugstore rivals, so it tries to position itself as the highest of the lowbrows, if that makes any sense. It's not competing with Creme de la Mer--it's competing with Revlon!

    On a different note, my husband once said, while we watched Heather Locklear flip her preternaturally yellow locks around, "Women in hair color commercials always have the scariest hair color. Why is that?"

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  6. I hate that vein of thought too, because I am spending the week trying to get people to pay our company for the products they received last year and have not paid for yet. Invariably, they have just come back from vacation (because they are worth it) and cannot afford to put $5 towards their bill with our company. Grand Scale HRRRRUMPH!
    Carole

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  7. Because I just can't let it go yet, I think the "because I'm worth it" is targeted at all the disgruntled for whatever reason middle-aged babes out there who really don't believe they ever received what they were due. It's such a hostile (and I ought to know, Queen of Hostile that I am lately) assertion, a leading-with-the-chin assertion. And I'm sorry, but dying your hair isn't going to get you any closer to validation or personal satisfaction. No matter what Clairol says. Or thinks you're saying. xoxoxo

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  8. It was originally the beautiful, classy Cybil Shepherd, and her line was 'Because YOU're worth it.' One shudders to imagine the low self-esteem suffered by those who would take this as a validation of their being.

    i agree w/Tania's DH - the colors are always so unnatural! When's it going to be okay to be gray?

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  9. Thank you to Tania for remembering that it was Heather Locklear! She annoys me.

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  10. I'd forgotten about the fact that it used to be, "Because YOU're worth it!" It was only slightly better than the current one.

    I'm really not too concerned about those poor people who have such low self-esteem that they feel validated by that slogan; they won't turn out to be arrogant b*******. I'm much more concerned about the ones who acquire too much self-esteem because of it.

    I can't bring to mind what Heather Locklear looks like. Do you think maybe the brand is promoted by different actresses in Europe?

    Carole, I also know the kind of people you're talking about. Infuriating!

    Thanks, M, for putting back a (milder) version of your original post. I still think you didn't have to remove it.

    Love your slaps, N! Will join you - except for the last one.

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  11. LOL at trying to imagine the kind of person who would become insufferably selfish by repeating the L'Oreal slogan as a personal mantra. "I'm going to lick all these donuts before my coworkers can have any, because I'm worth it!" OMG, it's Kimora Lee Simmons...

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  12. Wasn't it Jennifer Aniston in the UK? At some point?

    My boss was one of those 'middle-aged babes'. She grew up in the kind of society where you go to private school and spend your summer at pool parties, but it wasn't based on real money and she didn't manage to catch herself a rich husband by the pool aged 20 and gorgeous. Having missed her chance, it was downhill from there as far as she was concerned. She had a dream job - editorial director in book publishing with a competent managing editor (me!) doing all her work for her, so she could swan in at 11, read the paper, tiddle about on her laptop taking all day to do one book budget, avoid phoning the key author of the month in case they might ask a difficult question, write a memo about our filing systems (like it mattered to her - WE could all find things!), then go home on the dot of 4.57 and a half while I and my team of 5 editors laboured on till 10.30pm. AND SHE FELT HARD DONE-BY! ALL the time! She was seething with rage constantly. Why? Because -and I quote, truly - 'I was never supposed to have to work for a living!' And she followed this principle with her whole life - she bought the apartment she 'deserved' even though she couldn't afford it, she ate at top restaurants - because she deserved it. She sat on the floor at home because she couldn't have the £3,000 sofa she was worth, and she couldn't possibly get a department store one. And she deserved it even more because she hadn't got the BIG thing she deserved - a husband to keep her.

    No one deserves anything except to be treated fairly and with respect and to be given the opportunity to prove ourselves. Everything else needs to be earned. And if some people get more than they deserve, well, that's just luck and what can you do? It's hard enough to keep from feeling nasty self-destructive envy at all the things we can't afford, or can't get. We don't need to be made to feel that if we haven't got it it's actually our fault that we didn't deserve it enough!

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  13. Yes, it makes you either arrogant or dissatisfied - or both.

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  14. Lulu, I work with a woman who is so similar. She's a tenured prof. at a collge, so she's in the upper level of income on the planet, yet she is dissapointed because she somes from a wealthier background and she married a working class guy who is a freelance writer. And he's no slouch either, he frequently writes for the NY Times. Anyway, the first time I met her, she had just recently gotten married, and she whined on and on about how her husband didn't earn enough money, why didn't he have more ambition! Every time I saw this woman she would bring it up. She once told me "It never occured to me that I might earn more than my husband". Of course, now they are divorced.

    I feel like saying: "Lady, how much of the world's resourced do you personally think you need?"

    Ah, we're all greedy sometimes. Sure, we all want stuff, but to feel like you are entitled to it without working for it? That's just weird.

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  15. I remember seeing a programme about this slogan and its history. It dates back to the 1950s I believe when its implications would have been rather different. Equally sad though but in a rather different way.

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  16. Sounds interesting. Can you elaborate, greatsheelephant?

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  17. Has anyone seen the latest L'Oreal commercial running with Heather Locklear? What exactly are they trying to sell to us? Is it the orange color at her root area or is it the blonde base color with bleach highlights? This has got to stop. I can't believe they actually pay a professional to color the hair for a multi million dollar ad like that.

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  18. I hate all ads for hair dyes: they're all fake. There's no way any of those celebrities colour their hair at home.

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