The Absurdity of it All

Has anyone else noticed that disposable razor commercials are simply over the top? Their advertising and marketing claims get more and more ridiculous.

There is something I should say in order to be completely fair and have full disclosure… I am, and always have been, an electric razor user. I think I may have used a disposable razor once or twice in my entire life. So that may influence my opinion. Your mileage may vary. Yadda, yadda, blah, blah.

But have you seen these goofy commercials??? You’d think there was an army of Noble Prize winning scientists working on the immensely difficult problem of how to make a couple of dollar razor. They make it seem like the average razor has more technology in it than the space shuttle. Just consider the names, the Extreme III, the Mach3, the Mach3Turbo, the Quattro (4 must be better than 3 and Quattro is definitely cooler than Four), and now we have (drum roll please, oh and crank the echo effect) the Fusion. The Fusion has SIX blades! Five for a comfortable shave and a 6th one that is on the other side for detail trim work. There is even a Power version that has a battery. The website is a riot. It’s a nice site and all but beware, it takes a while to download. There’s an attractive woman walking around in a modestly short red dress and high heels with a lab coat on. That’s just too much. NO respectable lab rat would be caught in that outfit. Certainly, she must be one of the Noble Prize winning scientists working so hard to give us the most awesome shave ever. Right....

Then there’s a TV commercial about how when a good looking man (at least I’ve been told he’s good looking – I’m not an expert in such things) gets a close shave, that the woman on the treadmill becomes so distracted that she falls off the treadmill. Not once, but twice. Maybe the woman on the treadmill is just uncoordinated, I’m not sure. But I’m not sure if I would ask a woman out on a date who kept falling off the treadmill. That could be embarrassing on your date. She might fall of the chair in the restaurant. She could fall down the stairs in the theater. There are all sorts of potentially disastrous situations that could happen. It’s simply not safe, or wise, to be around her. Furthermore, I believe the man in the commercial would be just as good looking if he used a Fusion, or an Extreme III. Heck, he’d probably still attract the ladies if he didn’t shave at all or so I am told.

So what’s the point? Why spend all the money that the companies do on this stuff? To change our perceptions? To give us false hope? Hey, even you ugly guys can use the magic razor and hot women will fall all over you. Surely no one really believes that. So what’s the reasoning for the multi-millions spent in advertising a piece of plastic with a few bits of sharpened metal? Simple. To encourage us to spend a little more on a better shave. Two blades were better than one. Three is better than two. And the arms race is on. But each time the company has to spend a little more money and do something a little more outrageous to convince us that this model is better than the last one. They have to get us to part with a few more bucks for each new model too.

I wonder what an advertisement for church would look like if it used this model? How would a congregation convince the masses that their church is better than the one down the street? And is that even a good thing? I’ve seen some advertisements for churches on TV. Usually it’s for a denomination, rather than a local congregation. I like seeing the ads. I like the fact that Christians are trying to reach lost souls. However, I must admit to being less than completely thrilled with the ones I’ve seen, but hey, they are giving it a try. I’d like to see my local church do something like that. I love my local church. I’m not sure how I would tell someone in a 30 second sound byte how great our church is. The point is not that we are that awesome – I think the point is God is that awesome. I’d have a hard time telling someone how great God is in 30 seconds. I wonder what that would look like on my TV?

Ponderings_,