A love-in too far

There comes a time when a girl just has to say "stop the bullshit" and I'm afraid that time has come for me in the form of a gripe about the latest branding stunt for hair hygiene. You see, there's nothing that riles a cynic like me more than being taken for an idiot, which was exactly how I felt on opening the pages of a well-known women's magazine to see an advertisement for the SunSilk fashion designer range... SunSilk "ready to wear, limited edition" shampoo 'by Akira', and in a separate ad the same bottled baloney 'by Bettina Liano' (I'm sure there are others but it was these two that caught my attention).

Notwithstanding the fact that we live in an age when image is everything and meaning is nothing, this love-in between fashion and unrelated products is still surprising. I thought we'd plumbed the depths with that seemingly never-ending fizzer, the 'designers for' syndrome, which at least started respectably as a collaboration between trained designers and retailers, before quickly morphing into the 'talentless celebrities for' syndrome. Thus resulting in some very dubious collaborations (witness actress Sarah Jessica Parker's all too average creations for US retailer Steve & Barry). Now the juggernaut has veered out of control and we're back to 'designers for' but 'for' what exactly?

A mid market shampoo, and a 'ready to wear' one at that? Lord help us. For those that haven't seen the ads, here's the spiel: 'Get the hair you crave with SunSilk Shine Addict, designed exclusively by fashion designer Bettina Liano/Akira. Formulated with multi-faceted crystals, it's designed to lift the shine and intensify the shimmer of your hair.' Aside from the twaddle about those life-transforming multifaceted crystals (a girl's best friend?

I don't think so) what is this ad trying to tell us? That Liano and Isogawa - complete with designer lab coats and test tubes - have taken time out of their schedules to formulate hair products? Are we, the dirty-haired consumer masses, supposed to be reassured by a product made by fashion designers moonlighting in an out-of-town toiletries factory?

And what does this say about designers? That they need to expand their brand reach because fashion isn't earning enough for their businesses? Or, at the other end of the scale, that they believe their brand to be so magical that slapping it onto hair products will instantly validate them? And what exactly does "limited edition" status mean? Maybe some people actually collect shampoo bottles, but should anyone really be encouraging such strange behaviour?

Designers of the calibre of Akira Isogawa and Bettina Liano are highly talented and have achieved excellence in their field. They should stick with their strengths. As this case reveals, astute self-promotion in the service of brand integrity is clearly not one of them. I hope they were paid handsomely.