Marketing Gone Wild (Caution--no wild girls in this article)

Recently, I saw a commercial which got me thinking about something I had never previously thought seriously about. No, it wasn't about adopting a third world child. Was it about making a donation for the fight against cancer? Nope. It wasn't even about volunteering for one of the myriad organizations wanting to help our neighbours. The thing that grasped my attention in a world that values one's appearance above battling world hunger or deadly diseases was...a mascara commercial. Now, before I get into that pithy topic, let me say that for some time now, I figured three blades on a razor was the practical limit. But no, recently they upped the ante to five. Men, it seems, are as vain and susceptible to marketing ploys as women are. Well...almost.

The commercial in question promises women, and they say this with a straight face, even managing to mention it two or three times without bursting into fits of laughter, SEVENTEEN times fuller lashes! Not 3 times, not 5 times, but a full 17 times fuller lashes. When I saw the ad, I wasn't really paying attention and so I didn't catch which cosmetics company it was from. Today, I decided to investigate this earth-shattering development.

After a few google searches, I came to know the inventor of this "instant hair in a tube". (Seriously, if their claim holds true, I'm going to use it on my sparsely-covered head.) In the ad I found online, according to Revlon, their product will give you "lashes that are 17 times fuller, 50% visibly longer". Folks, that could do wonders for my ever receding hairline.

Much to my surprise, I discover that this version of their product is the waterproof cousin to their real flagship product, Revlon 3D Extreme. Ladies, why walk around with plain, old 2-dimensional lashes? That's soo '90's. This little baby will make your wimpy lashes "up to 25 times fuller and 80% visibly longer". Why, you can practically jump rope with them.

That really got me thinking. What do lashes that are 25 times fuller and 80% longer look like? I feel kind of silly now because I just spent the last hour using my professional graphics program to try and simulate the effect. But then again, women all over the world spend as much time each and every day applying makeup--some of them more than that.

Here then, are the before and after images:





What's next?--a razor with 25 blades? It might come in handy for women who use Revlon 3D.