Thursday, December 7, 2006

Gillette: Mach9 — Dillon K





English Media
Spoof Ad

Dillon Katrycz

Name and description of the original advertisement.
The original advertisement was for Gillette’s Razor, Mach 3. The ad was simple enough, just an image of the product. No slogan or additional advertising devices.

Why did you choose to create a spoof ad of this advertisement (rationale)?
In the world today, most men shave their faces on a daily basis. Razors started out with a single blade, progressing to two blades, then three, and now I see advertisements for razors with four, even five blades. My question to these companies: when is it going to stop? How many blades is too many?

Describe the things you did and the steps you took to create your new ad.
I actually began on several other ideas before coming to my final one. The idea just came to me when I was thinking about how to put a twist on an ad for a product with very definitive characteristics; shaving razors, for instance, are made either for men or women and do not vary in many ways. I found it funny how razor companies use the tactic of adding blade after blade to their razors to make us think that the product is more efficient. I then decided to add a ridiculous amount of razor blades to a well-known shaving razor to make the spoof ad humorous.

If you were to do a similar assignment again, what would you do differently and what would you need to know?
If I were to do a similar assignment again, I would spend more time outside of class to think of my idea. I think that maybe I was counting on a great idea to simply pop into my head, but I went through several mediocre ones before I came to something I was satisfied with.