Well, shit! We thought we were the archetypal Grumpy Old Man, but someone much grumpier, though of average intelligence – very average intelligence – on the aus.tv newsgroup, has reminded us why we don’t subscribe to newsgroups.

Anyway, this person has slagged away relentlessly at anyone – including our grumpy self and others who commented on the ValuesAustralia post on the topic ["a mockery, a travesty and a scandal"] – who voiced an opinion about the Head and Shoulders tvc which claims Certification by the Australian Hair and Scalp Foundation, suggesting that they are even more stupid than he and more or less paranoid, into the bargain, for thinking that there may be more than meets the eye in the claimed certification. They should be doing something useful, he seems to think. Perhaps something as useful as he does, spending apparently all of his time trawling the internet in search of perfectly reasonable and concerned human beings, to belligerently leap out at them like the astonishingly stupid, ugly troll that he is. Still, if it makes him happy … we are disappointed.

Nevertheless, we hope that he signs up for the free trial at Crikey.com.au, if he can afford it, and reads today’s special Crikey investigation, “The dermatologist and the invisible institutes“, by Dr Stephen Downes.

Downes spoke to the Director of the AHSF, Prof. Rodney Sinclair, as well as to various other people who are intimately associated with the certification gig. Not only is the AHSF in on the game, so is the “Asia Pacific Centre for Skin Ageing” which also recommends and certifies another Procter&Gamble product, Olay Total Effects. And the APCSA’s sole Director is….Rodney Sinclair.

The Crikey article says that PR releases claim APCSA experts had tested and researched the Olay product. This claim is not even supported by Sinclair himnself.

AHSF and APCSA have web presences. The APCSA site appears to be down. The AHSF site is, to our eyes, clearly a fig-leaf to hide embarrassment; a cheap, four-page quicky, offering no content of actual value.

Strangely, as Downes points out, Prof Sinclair, as recently as 1998, was “largely dismissive of the “science” behind cosmetic skin creams”.

It’s clear that it was very reasonable indeed for us to have our concerns and that we were well justified to express them. There may be more fire to the story, but at least we know that there really is smoke. And if the Grumpy Old Troll wishes to apologise by making a sizeable donation to the upkeep of ValuesAustralia by clicking the PayPal donation button on the right … well, Good On Ya!

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