Let’s get this straight. If a man who only exists in a regional radio station drivetime slot – probably nursing an unnecessarily chirpy disposition, raging speed habit and unhealthy interest in young, female interns – bursts into a changing room with a whoop, calls me buddy and starts paying a dubious interest in my semi-naked torso it’s probably going to be the worst for him.
Not that anyone ever stands, stripped to the waist, in any public changing rooms having a shave; but if that were to happen the chances are that if an annoying little twerp surprises someone in a vulnerable position and gets a bit close, the person on the receiving end of his attention is probably anticipating at best a mugging and worst a burglary of an entirely different kind. This advert is actually called Invasion, so who knows where it could end up.
Gillette says that these are all real people, yet there are British, French, German, American and Irish ads that often appear to take place in the same venue. This raises a number of interesting questions, namely just how ordinary are these ordinary men off the street?
If they are indeed average Joes then how exactly does Gillette manage to attract men to the same venue to stand around in the nip having wet shaves in deserted changing rooms? Troubling questions.
And just why does every ad start with an idiotic whoop? Since when has it been a good idea to interrupt someone with a loud whoop and door slam while they’re drawing a sharp blade across their throat?
“Whooooooo! Hello bud-… Oh my God. He’s bleeding! BLEEDING! Get help! Whoooooo! It’s the Fusion Proglide Challenge! Tug and pull… tug and pull… Whoooooo!”