PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan
Just heading out the door, went to fire up the dishwasher and the marketing pitch on the soap caught my eye.
“Now, Hypo Allergenic!” What the hell does that mean?
It was the main selling feature of the dishwashing soap and for years I have taken it for granted. In fact, I might choose one soap or another because one advertised Hypo Allergenic and one did not – never knowing what the heck it meant. It’s gotta be good or they wouldn’t advertise it. Right?
The term has been around for years and simply means it is “relatively unlikely to cause an allergic reaction.” It came into use many years ago by the cosmetic industry because some goos people put on their face might cause an allergic reaction in a tiny fraction of users. Fair enough, but dishwashing soap?
I am reminded of these marketing “truths” that we just accept without thinking. Like “time aligned” loudspeakers. Ever think about that? The practice of slanting the speaker baffle back to time align the tweeter with the woofer or midrange. Sounds good right? I would choose one speaker over the other if one was aligned and the other not – after all, who wants an out of time speaker?
While the tweeter’s upper frequency wavelength are inches, a woofer’s wavelength varies from many feet to many inches – far more than any “time alignment” could possibly allow for. So no speaker is truly “time aligned” by a sloping baffle – it’s just better aligned.
So the marketing term more correctly is “closer to time aligned” but then that’s not very encouraging is it?
