commercials

[rone]

OK, so how much money do the phone companies make on collect calling? The enraging inanity of Carrot Top and Alf aside, are the ridiculous magnitude and frequency of ads we see justified by the profit they make?

Another item that's all over TV and the Web: shaving blades. What the fuck? How much money is in the shaving blade industry that they are desperate to top each other with moronic ads of guys in space and alien chicks fondling their faces? Now we have the Schick Quattro, "the world's first four-bladed shaver!" Remember that SNL skit about the shaver with 35 blades or whatever? IT WAS A JOKE, SCHICK. PUT THE QUATTRO DOWN BEFORE YOU HURT SOMEONE. No, i take that back, go ahead and shave your fucking head off! ARGGGGGH.

Comments

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Hm, not only did I misspell Gillette, but actually the market cap is nearer $32B.

So anyway, the answer being A LOT OF MONEY.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Why do companies that make shavers and beverages become WORLD POWERS? What the fuck?

[wisn.livejournal.com]

New York Times article about it a few weeks ago (it's pay per view online now) outlined how much money was at stake, and how much they spent on R&D and marketing.

The answer is: If you want a decent shave, you've got to use either Gillette's or Schick's products, and they'll fight tooth and nail over your eight dollar purchase, because you're one of the hundreds of millions of mooks with neck stubble to remove.

Among Gillette's campaigns is mailing the latest version of their Mach 3 razor to every male in the US they don't have logged as a customer. Which explains why I got two of them in the mail a couple weeks ago - one in my name and one for a former tenant. So I won't have to buy blades for a while.

[pootrootbeer.livejournal.com]

Gillette sent me a free disposable-cartridge razor set for my 18th birthday, which I guess tips the scales in their favor. Not that I use blade razors very often -- a Remington electric does well enough for the occasions where I decide not to just be all scruffy-looking.

It also means Gillette they had all my demographic data before I turned 18, which is vaguely unsettling.

[waider.livejournal.com]

All the money's in the blades. By giving you the handset they're essentially trying to lock you into their blade supply from the outset.