Reuters, Wednesday, September 14, 2005:
James Taranto also noticed the irony (scroll down). For the record, I used his title, "Life Imitates the Onion", which he has used in the past for other similar incidents. But I spotted this particular one on my own, before seeing it mentioned on his Best of the Web roundup.
ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
SomethingAwful.com shows where all this is headed. I think that picture is based on an old MAD TV skit featuring the "Spischack Mach 13 Razor Blade" that shaved off not only your beard, but also big chunks of your face. Ironically, (via BoingBoing and Wired), MAD Magazine also predicted an excessively-multi-bladed razor back in 1979. And this song predicts even more extreme results of the razor arms race.
Gillette to Launch Five-Blade 'Fusion' RazorThe Onion, February 18, 2004:
Gillette Co. on Wednesday unveiled its newest shaving system, a five-bladed razor called Fusion with a trimmer on the back of the cartridge aimed at the 50 percent of men who have mustaches and beards.
Fusion is Gillette's latest product geared at maintaining the company's leading share of the world's razor and blade market.
It has one more blade than the Quattro sold by rival Schick, a unit of Energizer Holdings Inc.
F*** Everything, We're Doing Five BladesFOLLOW-UP:
By James M. Kilts
CEO and President, The Gillette Company
The Gillette Mach3 was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That's three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened — the bastards went to four blades.
...Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, f*** it. We're going to five blades.
James Taranto also noticed the irony (scroll down). For the record, I used his title, "Life Imitates the Onion", which he has used in the past for other similar incidents. But I spotted this particular one on my own, before seeing it mentioned on his Best of the Web roundup.
ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
SomethingAwful.com shows where all this is headed. I think that picture is based on an old MAD TV skit featuring the "Spischack Mach 13 Razor Blade" that shaved off not only your beard, but also big chunks of your face. Ironically, (via BoingBoing and Wired), MAD Magazine also predicted an excessively-multi-bladed razor back in 1979. And this song predicts even more extreme results of the razor arms race.
I am constantly amazed by the amount of money spent in the US each year on efforts to trick consumers into paying exhorbitant prices for what is essentially a commodity. Twin-blade disposables are fine with me; the closeness of one's morning shave does not affect whether an evening shave may also be needed.
I really enjoyed the Onion's "Intellingent Falling" piece, by the way.
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