Shaving 'Til You Disappear

When I got my first razor in tenth grade, it was an electric. I've never given it much use, and for that reason it's lasted, and I've never bought another. Shaving simply isn't a priority with me. Not that I would be described as stubblefaced. It's just that I'm stuck in that stage when the difference between my shaven and unshaven faces is not apparent to the casual observer.

Nonetheless, I recognize that the daily, violent removal of facial growth is as good as a requirement for the majority of American men. It is therefore no small piece of news that the Gillette Company is this week unveiling its first new razor in more than a decade. As the Boston Globe reported last week, the new razor--the Sensor--has 20 patents and 13 moving parts.

The chair of the Gillette Company, Colman M. Mockler Jr. '52, a member of the Harvard Corporation, describes the Sensor as follows: "It gives the best shave I've ever had by far. And it gives it time after time. This one's for everybody."

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."

The message is simple: it doesn't matter who you are or where you stand in this society--for those five minutes in front of the mirror every morning you are getting just as close, just as comfortable, a shave as the chief executive officer of a multinational corporation. Sudden material equality for $3.75 (three razors included).

It is 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 a man can get."

OF course, we're not all in this facial thing together. Women won't have much use for the Sensor, so it's not really "for everybody."

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.

The Gillette Sensor is the Harvard Yard of the razor world. It's damn pleasant, and anybody who wants to can enjoy it--and that should be enough to keep us happy for life.

It 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.

Just in case that's true, I'm planning to stick with my electric. And never more than three times a week.