Wilkinson Sword – Quattro Titanium
14 November 2007 by SilkyIt seems that Wilkinson Sword have decided to throw subtlety out of the window.
I say this because previously in razor adverts there was only ever the implication that a close shave would make your more attractive to women. This was usually achieved by a shot of a man (with a cleanly shaven face) and an attractive women stroking it (the face).
Sometimes, they would ramp things up a little with a saucy tag line: “The Best a Man Can Get”. Missus! But that was as far as things went.
Wilkinson Sword, however, decided that Neanderthal man wouldn’t understand the implied connection between shaving and sex. So they came up with the (terribly dubbed) “How was it for you?” campaign. Which, whilst I’m on it, couldn’t have been written by a man for simply reason that since the dawn of time (and the birth of the previously mentioned Neanderthal man) no man has ever uttered the words “How was it to you?” to another man.
At the very least, it hasn’t been uttered by a man who would be overly bothered whether a woman found him attractive. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but make your mind up Wilkinson Sword; are you going for the Homo- or Hetero- market?
Anyway, what with there being more heterosexual men needing to shave then there are homosexual men needing to shave, it appears that Wilkinson Sword have decided to definitely target the former group.
We know this because at the very start of the new advert there’s a mixed-sex couple having a bit of a sexy romp. This is accompanied by the line “Let’s try something new”. Very kinky.
Sadly, it turns out that the “something new” was to “make yourself look like an Eastern European sex offender”. And this presumably means that the only sex you’ll be getting is in the showers whilst staying at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. Again, blurring the line between straight and gay.
I can’t decide if it’s very clever multi-orientation marketing or steaming great mess of an advert.
Either way, I’ve been asked by the authorities to ask you that if you should see any of the following men, please report them immediately to your nearest Police Station.
Thank you for your co-operation with this.
12Responses:
Mike Empuria
Said on the 15 November 2007
“Design your own look,” it says at the end of the advert. “Twattify yourself,” it should say.
I bet these guys know Mickey.
Testoni
Said on the 15 November 2007
Run for the hills! It’s the notorious Sharp-Shaving Quintuplet Brothers, out for revenge on the public after their idea for a five-way identity-confusion-based sitcom was rejected by ITV4.
You could achieve a similar effect to those in the pictures by replacing your jaw bone with a powerful electromagnet and sprinkling your face liberally with iron filings. Then you could sculpt a new metrosexual style each day to suit your whim without all that fiddly shaving. Before bed, switch off the power and wipe clean.
Who needs testosterone?
Sarah Ryan
Said on the 15 November 2007
What I’d like to add is that I think this is an awful ad. If I he was on a promise with me, he could forget it! The facial hair looks stick on too. It’s horrible.
steve
Said on the 11 December 2007
chist!! it looks like some freaky freddie mercury lookalike competition.
that’s another product i’ll be avoiding solely due to a god awful ad.
do ad execs really think we’re all cunts? i believe they do!
Muster
Said on the 9 January 2008
Has there ever been a good shaving advert: I think you could make this a sub-catagory all of it’s self. They don’t even go for a decent visuable and auditory similary now-a-days. I remeber the old days, when a certain wet shaver company had a skier slicing down winter slopes, a sharp swish of ski on snow….. Ah, the good old days! God, they got me!!!!!!!
Soapy
Said on the 9 January 2008
Muster I remember that one, they were indeed the good old days. Unfortunately they seem to be reliant these days on giving us constant close ups of the shaven chin just to hammer the point home.
Dave
Said on the 5 February 2008
Shaving ads get on my wick they are the male equivalent of sanitary towel ads, none of the models featured have any stubble on their faces, they probably have had their facial hair removed by electrolysis, there’s no friction burns, no cuts and no little hairs on the razor or in the foam. In other words no relation to the realities of shaving for the average bloke at all.
Jellyfish McSaveloy
Said on the 5 February 2008
Is it just me or does he look gayer than Graham Norton in a pink suit with a dozen monkeys on laughing gas?
No, wait a minute, I know what he looks like: A cunt.
Pete The Pedant
Said on the 31 March 2008
I wish it was possible to shave like they do on these ads. One giant stroke from ear to chin in 0.2 seconds. Get them to try that with a real blade on a 2 day growth. Maybe throw in a couple of bulging plooks* too . Now that’s something I’d pay to see these smug gits go through!
Plook, n, a colloqial Scottish expression for a spot, or zit.
Dan
Said on the 20 January 2009
This makes me laugh, most notably the responses!
The advert was created by an ad agency as a new concept; different to those butch, masculine adverts as Wilkinson Swords said they wanted something a bit different and not too serious. The ad agency provided the advert which was then used sraight away as the campaign, which it wasn’t meant to! There was a secondary batch of standard euro adverts a month or two after this one which was the correctly funded campaign!
How do I know this? A good friend of mine came up with the concept. And even more amusing when I saw it first, is that he based the advert on my various facial hair stylings over the past 3 years. Each of those shown have been worn by yours truly and it was real, unlike the stick hair they used!
And yes, I do have Eastern European roots, am not on any police list (that I know of) and am not gay! As for being a cnt, well… if the merkin fits…
jim
Said on the 20 January 2009
See the first response Dan.
leighton
Said on the 19 May 2010
ha ha ha ha ha this is my mate, he’s called freddy and he isnt eastern european, but he is a cunt
“s it just me or does he look gayer than Graham Norton in a pink suit with a dozen monkeys on laughing gas?
No, wait a minute, I know what he looks like: A cunt.”
awesome
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