Something of a (tenuous) link to Mike's earlier post on handwashing (or lack thereof) in the public lavatory, I noticed today for the first time the little tagline or logo on the Dial antibacterial soap container in the washroom here: "For a Healthy Clean you can Feel (TM)."
A completely bland and expectable soap-slogan, to be sure...but it contains some subtleties that took me a minute to work out. A "healthy clean" -- the one-two punch embodied in that particular phrase can't be dismissed easily. First, "clean" is nominalized, rather duplicitously, promoted under cover of night from adjective to noun; and then it gets decked out in a rather expectable but, in context, breathtaking "healthy." Just say it a few times: a healthy clean. A healthy clean. A healthy clean. The noun-clean now sounds vibrant and virile instead of ridiculous and out of its element.
Then the kicker -- "you can Feel." We can feel the clean and the health, we are clean and feeling and healthy! Both feelers of the healthy clean, and healthy clean-feelers are we! We Can Feel the Healthy Clean!
It's brilliant, really.
Posted by B T at April 09, 2001 07:24 PM