I Didn't Buy Gillettes Half a Century Ago Because a Tiger Woods was to Be Born Two Decades Later!

I was a young man then. As my adult hormones started to flow through my veins, my face started to grow hairs. I had to shave. And I told my dad.

He let out a hearty laugh, patted my back, turned towards the kitchen and shouted,
"Honey, did you hear what our son said? He says he is no more a kid, he is a man."

Mom came to the kitchen door, laughed and went back.

And off we went, dad and I, to the only strip mall in town (nothing but shacks compared to the present ones) and into dad's favorite store, a mom and pop establishment.

As my dad told the store-owner "A razor for my son", both he and his wife smiled at me approvingly. He led me to one of the aisles, took out a shaving set and declared,

"Gillette is good."

On the way back, dad gave me lecture on "safe shaving" and warned,

"Gillette is sharp. So be careful."

Yes, that was it. My introduction to Gillette.

No, neither Clarke Gable told me, nor did Yogi Berra, to use only Gillette.

The only endorsements Gillette got then was from Mr. Smith the store-owner and my dad, two plain plebeians.

And that endorsement stood the test of time for almost two decades, even as a young lad was born, unknown to me, in far away California. They christened him Eldrick Tont Woods.

But I kept on buying Gillettes and shaving irrespective of what distant compatriots did or not. Yes, my early morning shaving relationship with Gillette continued irrespective of the relationships of Hollywood Stars or Hall of Fame Celebrities.

Came the nineties and I started hearing about a prodigious golfer named Tiger Woods. But I had nothing to do with that game. And my morning shaving routine was not dictated by golf tournament schedules either.

Not only for shaving, for every aspect of my life I am responsible. I can't go on blaming my failures on some role model because the "know all" media wants to play both God and Satan.

I don't think I have role models except my grandparents, parents and some of the founding fathers of this great nation.

I didn't mortgage my ability to think and freedom to choose to gossip-hungry media who made money through yellow journalism.

And I not a moneyed main stream media baron to make his minions shout "Call Girl, Call Girl" at passing politicians and then shamelessly give a job to the same call girl in his own office on the sly.

Any way I will continue to buy and use Gillette - not based on HERE-TODAY-GONE-TOMORROW celebrity or media endorsements.

Two small town guys, Mr. Smith and my dad, endorsed Gillette, I used Gillette and found it good. That is it. No celebrity was or is involved in that choice.

I didn't need a celebrity to act as a role model for my morning chores and ablutions nor as a scapegoat to blame my failings on.

Celebrities are fallible human beings not infallible gods.

If a media or corporate baron wants to make money at the expense of celebrities that is his problem. But that doesn't give him any authority to impose or appoint role models over me.

No wonder, fewer and fewer people want to spent money on their services.