NYT: In two Super Bowl spots — one 30 seconds, the other 15 seconds — Gillette will unveil the “Miracle of Fusion,” a razor that has five closely spaced blades for regular shaving, and a “precision trimmer” blade in back, for grooming beards and mustaches.
If any of those Super Bowl viewers read newspapers or listen to talk shows, Fusion’s introduction will probably be old news. CVS and a handful of other retailers began promoting Fusion in their free-standing inserts in newspapers last Sunday. And ever since September, when Gillette first unveiled its Fusion razor — or, as the company called it back then, The Future of Shaving — columnists, talk show hosts and bloggers have taken good-natured swipes at the whole idea that the more blades the merrier.
Peter K. Hoffman, president of Gillette’s blades and razors unit, insists he is unfazed and predicts Fusion will be a $1 billion product by 2008.
This reminds me of that SNL fake commercial where a razor company comes out with a version with about 50 blades. The guy (Will Ferrell I think) who uses it cut giant hunks of facial flesh right off; but at least he gets a close shave. Why does it cost Gillette and Schick billions to “develop” these things when all they do is add another blade every 5 years?