Life Imitating Art

Satire or Prediction

On February 18th 2004 the Onion a satirical online news source decided to cover a growing battle of Gillette and Schick the two powerhouses in disposable shaving. The premise was Schick had raised the stakes by introducing the Schick Quattro a 4 blade shaving system, and now Gillette with their Mach3 was in a fury to catch up.

For the full story (WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE)

F*** Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades

Gillette Raises the Stakes

Early in 2006 Gillette seemingly took a page out of the Onion and launched the Gillette Fusion 5 blade shaving system. The end product sounds remarkably similar to the joke product outlined in the satirical news article.

By squeezing in two additional blades 30% closer than the previous Mach3 setup Gillette had answered the challenge Schick had laid out, if not quite in the profanity laced way that the Onion had pushed.

Conclusion

It’s interesting at times seeing good satire that’s so chillingly accurate in its depiction of the subject matter. It’s hard to say how much information the writer had, but writing an article 2 years before the product was release is pretty compelling.

In the end with the heated battle between these two companies, as well as the high stakes (the Gillette Fusion went on to sell $1 billion) it’s not hard to imagine how much pressure Gillette was under to answer this challenge.