Gillette launches 5-blade razor "Fusion"

Before you start thinking what a joke it is, let me tell you that it is serious. They have launched it in the US. And now, you can laugh. :-)

Fellow blogger, Shivaji Das has put up a post at his blog. Humourous read! Check it out.

There was a time when I felt my Dad would ask me to get started with those older variety of razors where you got to place a blade in its slot and screw down the top over it. There were 4 edges to it and you could alternate those edges and manage each blade quite economically. And they extracted as good a shave as could be done with the modern blades of today. Anyways, I was quite put off by that idea and prolonged my decision to shave till such a day dawned when I could get started with a twin-blade.

Even then, it could not be any twin-blade. It had to be a Gillette Razor only. Every boy's dream? You can call it. I started with the Gillette Vector. Vector Plus came in later. But the Vector was the original trend setter. Rubber gripped handle, Swiveling blade... wow! What a smooth shave!

Then came the day when the number of blades in the razor got incremented by one. 3 blades. And they branded it Mach-3. Time had come for me to move on. I bought the new Mach-3 and waxed eloquent on its shaving ease and shave quality. No nicks too. Mmmm.. thats a good deal, I used to tell myself. And I guess this would count among Gillette's master strokes in creating this good a brand image about Mach-3.

Never did I imagine that they would go beyond 3 blades and launch the one with 4. Branded as the "Quattro", shaving instruments started looking like mini spaceships. And all sorts of bells and whistles were included in the branding package. A lubricating soapy strip, a comfort guard... and what not. Whether it was a success or not, I cannot tell for lack of appropriate information. But I do feel that it was not as successful as its predecessors.

And now comes the razor with 5 sabers. They could have called it "Pentagon". Right? Probably some older wiser men decided against it and they decided to call it a "Fusion". Beats me, why the name "Fusion"? They might as well create one with 10 blades and build it like a lawn-mover. And then call it "ManeMover". lol :-)

And if you read Shivaji's post above with the graph plot and everything, you would realise that this shaving blade business is crossed over into lunatic territory. All this reminds me of that old "Godrej Shaving Cream" ad... where someone asks a man, turned on his back, which shaving cream he uses. He turns around, stroking his beard and exlaims "Me?!". Maybe many men would just start growing beards now to avoid the confusion of choosing n-bladed razors!