Confusing marketing

I spent my younger years baking in the sun. What could be better than being blonde and tanned? Now I am paying the price with several bouts of skin cancer. So now, I am meticulous about wearing sunscreen, even in the winter.

I especially like Coppertone Water Babies sunscreen; it works the best. I was excited to find it on sale for buy one, get one at 50% off. I go through a lot of it, especially in the summer.

I wanted to get more, so I went online to Walgreens.com (which used to be Drugstore.com ). I knew what I wanted, so it didn’t take me long to order it.

I just happened to be reading the ingredient labels and I noticed that this batch was different – it had chemical sunblocks like avobenzene and oxysalisate (or something equally unpronounceable). My first bottles had zinc oxide, which is a mineral sunscreen that works by physically blocking the UVA and UVB rays. I like this much better.

Upon closer investigation, I noticed the bottles were different, albeit there was a subtle difference. The bottles were both pink, had SPF 50 and said “dermatologist recommended.” The ONLY difference was one bottle had the additional words, “Pure and simple.”

I suppose I had noticed that before, but I didn’t give it much thought. I just figured Coppertone had changed the wording. Well it turns out, there are two very different products.

All that is well and good, but why oh why did Coppertone have to put these in such similar looking bottles? I learned my lesson; I will be much more careful when purchasing products from now on, even with things I buy all the time. 🙂

Just one of the mysteries of life, I suppose.

What experiences have you had with confusing marketing?