Two grandparents have expressed their shock to the nation after reading the back of their eight-year-old granddaughter’s Lush shower gel.
Tracey and Richard Shiner, from Essex, bought their granddaughter a Lush ‘Little Snow Fairy’ bath set for Christmas, as it sounded child-friendly.
But when their granddaughter opened her present, they were “horrified” to discover that the shower gel bottle came with instructions telling the user to “invite someone into the shower” with them.
On the back of the ‘Little Snow Fairy’ shower gel label, under the headline ‘How To Use’, text reads: “If you really don’t know how, then we suggest you find someone you really like and invite them into the shower with you to demonstrate”.
Richard phoned Lush to complain about the “innuendo” and request the brand add an age-warning to the product.
He was told by a customer service manager that the directions were “meant to be tongue-in-cheek” and was offered two free bath bombs as compensation, which he turned down.
“I couldn’t believe it said that,” Richard told The Sun, adding that his young granddaughter kept asking him what the instructions meant.
In an official statement about the complaint, a spokesperson for Lush told The Huffington Post UK: “Whilst we take our products and their ingredients seriously, we try not to take ourselves too seriously and like to have humour at the heart of everything we do.
“Our humour is very traditional British, sometimes in the style of seaside postcards and Christmas pantomime, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, often self-deprecating. Our customers tend to have an innate understanding of this style of humour.
“It is never our intention to offend, but as with all humour, not everyone will find the same things funny.
“As far as the mixed age of our customers and readers is concerned, we take the same line as UK pantomimes and many children’s films, where a laugh can be inserted that adults will understand, but will go unnoticed by the young and innocent.
“In a world of bland corporate output, we hope to always take risks and raise a smile or two.”