A couple years ago receiving a free Fusion and cartridge in the mail as a teaser. This was back when I was using the M3, but, curious (and like any good little consumer sheep), I figured I'd give it a try. More blades means more human! 
I distinctly remembered being dissatisfied. The already-suspect job the M3 did under my nose was an order of magnitude worse with the Fusion, and the extra blade was offset by the overall floppiness of the hinged head. There was no rigidity to it - less even than the already-floppy M3 - and I did not like it. The blade on the other side of the head - for sideburns, I guess?
- was pretty much useless. I did not migrate to the Fusion.
Thinking about the fusion put me in mind of other razor gimmickry; moisturizing strips, rubber fins to lift hairs, battery-powered... my favorite, I think, is one from the '90s that had a fully flexible head such that it could be placed on top of a marble sphere (they demonstrated in the commercial) and the entire length of the blade would remain in contact with the sphere due to the flexibility. The tagline was something like "because real faces have curves" or something. Great - if you have a perfectly spherical face! I get the impression that shaving with it would have been indifferent at best, and nightmarish at worst - imagine trying to use that thing your neck, or along your jaw - like shaving with a vegetable peeler.
It's obvious in retrospect, with a couple months of DE shaving under my belt, that all of the bells and whistles of cartridge shavers are attempts to find the next successful marketing gimmick. As with inflatable basketball shoes, cheese-stuffed pizza crust, and color-changing beer cans, marketers toil away with their focus groups and their trend white papers coming up with concepts to throw at the wall and hope they stick.
In addition to the satisfaction of a shave well achieved with a DE, I also derive a certain satisfaction from using my DE and knowing that I'm sticking it to not just the faceless corporation, but also the very idea that anyone will fall for the latest new marketing gimmick, no matter how dumb. Well, yes, I did succumb to the M3 gimmickry for many years, so who am I to judge? However, as wise musicians once stated: Won't get fooled again.
I'm not sure there's a point to this post, other than to wonder if other folks have similar impressions of the products we get wooed with, both shaving-related and beyond.
I distinctly remembered being dissatisfied. The already-suspect job the M3 did under my nose was an order of magnitude worse with the Fusion, and the extra blade was offset by the overall floppiness of the hinged head. There was no rigidity to it - less even than the already-floppy M3 - and I did not like it. The blade on the other side of the head - for sideburns, I guess?
- was pretty much useless. I did not migrate to the Fusion.Thinking about the fusion put me in mind of other razor gimmickry; moisturizing strips, rubber fins to lift hairs, battery-powered... my favorite, I think, is one from the '90s that had a fully flexible head such that it could be placed on top of a marble sphere (they demonstrated in the commercial) and the entire length of the blade would remain in contact with the sphere due to the flexibility. The tagline was something like "because real faces have curves" or something. Great - if you have a perfectly spherical face! I get the impression that shaving with it would have been indifferent at best, and nightmarish at worst - imagine trying to use that thing your neck, or along your jaw - like shaving with a vegetable peeler.
It's obvious in retrospect, with a couple months of DE shaving under my belt, that all of the bells and whistles of cartridge shavers are attempts to find the next successful marketing gimmick. As with inflatable basketball shoes, cheese-stuffed pizza crust, and color-changing beer cans, marketers toil away with their focus groups and their trend white papers coming up with concepts to throw at the wall and hope they stick.
In addition to the satisfaction of a shave well achieved with a DE, I also derive a certain satisfaction from using my DE and knowing that I'm sticking it to not just the faceless corporation, but also the very idea that anyone will fall for the latest new marketing gimmick, no matter how dumb. Well, yes, I did succumb to the M3 gimmickry for many years, so who am I to judge? However, as wise musicians once stated: Won't get fooled again.
I'm not sure there's a point to this post, other than to wonder if other folks have similar impressions of the products we get wooed with, both shaving-related and beyond.
