Dove Soap Dives into Soapy Semantics

On a recent trip to a BJ's mega-jumbo-cavernous Warehouse, I wandered to the toiletries section to pick up a package of soap bars for my wife. She specifically requested Dove soap and I happened upon 4-5 options from Unilever's big brand name.

As I was scanning the packaging on each type of soap, I noticed a peculiar play on words that had me wondering, "Are these marketing people serious? Or perhaps it's just a joke?"

Some of the soaps had: "Moisturizing Cream" emblazoned on the cartons.

Other soaps had: "Hydrating Lotion" depicted on them.

Ummm, okay.

Last time I checked, hydrating is synonymous with moisturing.

Ditto for lotion and cream.

Knowing enough about marketing to be dangerous, my hunch is that this is some sort of A/B split test to see which words sell better. Otherwise, perhaps it's just the Unilever marketers trying to liven things up for us bored consumers. Whatever the case, they might want to clean up their semantics...

Soap Dish Opera

At the behest of my skin-smart spouse, I've been using Dove soap for roughly a year now. Tonight I just took out a new bar and I noticed this statement on the box:

"Keep in a dry soap dish."

So I ask, perhaps philosophically, is there such a thing?

If I use the soap with water and then put it down in the dish, the soap will be wet and the dish will soon get wet as well. And stay wet. For a long time. In fact I have yet to find a soap dish that stays dry and doesn't get messy with soap scum, but thanks for the suggestion Dove folks.