Word: mockler
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...Mockler is less photogenic than Victor Kiam (Who, to use his own words, liked Remington so much he bought the company), but his rhetoric aims to create the same audience rapport as Kiam's TV appearances. "This one's for everybody" is a prime example of what historian of advertising Roland Marchand has identified as "the parable of the Democracy of Goods...
...highly unlikely that Mockler consciously conspired to create that message. His only real goal is to sell razors, and he probably just told the Globe reporter the first thing he thought of. Nevertheless, his words--like those of most corporate advertisers--serve to gloss over huge social as well as material inequalities: We're all in this facial thing together, the whole world over. For the first time, a Gillette razor will have the same name worldwide. And worldwide we'll all be happy with "the best...
This small oversight is merely indicative of Mockler's, and Gillette's, real feelings about democracy and egalitarianism. When John W. Symons, Gillette's North Atlantic president, boasts "We have the potential of being the greatest male toiletry business in the world" it's hard not to laugh at the absurdity of his dreams of power...
Democracy seems only to be in Colman Mockler's heart when it comes to razors. He has no problem with trying to snatch a bigger share of the world's $2.4 billion razor market for himself. Or with owning a South African subsidiary. Or with serving as one of seven people who as the Harvard Corporation can make any decision they want to about this university without being accountable to anyone...
...would be easy to end our examination of this new consumer product by condemning corporate America and the men who make it work. But maybe they're on to something this time. Maybe Colman Mockler knows something about the importance of shaving that I don't know. Maybe when everyone's face is as smooth as a baby's but we'll all get along and never disagree. Then the Democracy of the Razor will be the only important democracy, since we'll all support the Corporation anyway...