I had heard of Sydney Sweeney, of course. But I really had no idea who she is. Blonde? Young? Actress? Hotty?
All of the above, I guess.*
And all of the above is what makes for a new soap from Dr. Squatch, a natural body care brand, that uses Sydney's bathwater in its mix.
Apparently, the soap-consuming public (Male Division) had been clamoring for it, so on June 6, Dr. Squatch brought out a limited edition "Sydney's Bathwater Bliss."
Nearly a million folks signed up for the opportunity to win a free bar. (One hundred bars available, so your odds weren't great.) And the remainder of the lot - I've seen lot sizes of 5,000 and 8,000 - were available on Dr. Squatch for $8 a bar. Whatever the number available, they sold out instantly. And were instantly available on eBay for $40, $80, $250, $375, $420...
You don't need me to tell you that people are nuts, that's for sure.
It all started last fall when Sweeney did some promo for Dr. Squatch, posing in a bathtub. What to do after the photoshoot? After all, you don't want to throw any bucks out with the bathwater now, do you?
“When your fans start asking for your bathwater, you can either ignore it, or turn it into a bar of Dr. Squatch soap,” the 27-year-old said in an official press release for the product.
She continued, “It’s weird in the best way, and I love that we created something that’s not just unforgettable, it actually smells incredible and delivers like every other Dr. Squatch product I love. Hopefully, this helps guys wake up to the realities of conventional personal care products and pushes them towards natural.”
Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss is a medium grit exfoliating soap made with sand, pine bark extract and "yes, a touch of Sydney’s real bathwater." As for what it smells like, the soap bar delivers notes of pine, Douglas fir and earthy moss that brings users to the forest, as well as Sweeney's actual bathtub. (Source: People)
From a marketing standpoint, this is all, of course, brill.
A million people looking to win a free bar? A million emails for the Dr. Squatch mailing list?
Articles in People, Adweek, Newsweek, and - natch! - Page 6.
The limited edition selling right out, at a reasonable gag-gift price of $8, and then popping over to eBay for orders of magnitude beyond the gag-gift price. (Not that anyone IRL is going to pay $420 for a bar. It's just that someone is asking that. Which creates mo better buzz.)
Marketing genius!
Yet still weirdly disturbing.
No, it doesn't quite rise to the nutiness level of Gwyneth Paltrow's selling a candle that smelled like her vagina (sorry), but still.
We are one crazy-arsed culture, that's for sure.
Unfortunately, I don't see where there's any turning back other than going the Handmaid's Tale route.
Sigh...
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*Turns out I kinda/sorta knew (shoulda known) who Sydney Sweeney is, as she was in White Lotus Season One playing the snotty college girl daughter to some rich folks. And I do watch White Lotus. Still, she didn't register with me, other than vaguely.
Image Source: Sydney Sweeney's Insta
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