New Schick Razors, with aloe and vitamin E. Shick

I am totally freaked out by these ads. These ‘things’ (well, they aren’t really men and they definitely aren’t babies) look like human beings at first, and then it takes way too long to figure out what it is that makes them look so weird. And then, when you have figured it out, you just stare in a strange combination of fearand fascination.

Well, that’s how it went for me, anyway.

When considering the baby-smooth softness of a good razor, picturing a strange combination of photoshopped man and baby faces is not something that comes to mind. What makes these images worse, I think, is the fact that the men in the ads are so hairy chested (and hairy backed, in one case). Not to mention the water dripping down the ample neck and chest fat. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work at all for me.

But do these ads work? I think not. They aren’t obvious enough; it takes too long to work out a mental schema that will accomodate the weirdness of the man/baby faces. And while spending the time it takes figuring it out, you get stuck trying to work out  how exactly these faces are made so strange. Is it just the mouths? Maybe the noses as well? The fat baby necks are obvious, I’ll give them that, but the rest is too ambiguous.

If I were of the sex that these ads are targetting, I have to say I would feel like a Schick Quattro razor might just emasculate me a little bit, and would also be a little concerned about just how smooth the razor with make my face.

I would also hope that the smooth and soft skin on my face would not, as in these ads, draw attention to the fact that as a man, I am actually hairy in other places, too.

Advertising Agency: JWT, Venezuela
Product: Schick Quattro
Photographer: Marcel Boldú

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