242 - GILLETTE - c.1935

GILLETTE - c.1935 Original lithographed die-cut advertising/point-of-sale display card. 30.5 x 22.5 cm Good condition—with its backing on the reverse. There are two perforations at the top and a few minor imperfections. “Double Electric Hardening”: This campaign by Gillette’s French subsidiary promoted its new patented process for hardening steel through electrical induction. Founded in Boston in 1901 by King Camp Gillette (1855–1932), the Gillette Safety Razor Company was born from a simple idea: to create—much like a disposable bottle cap—a razor equipped with a thin, replaceable blade that the user would no longer have to sharpen. Production began in 1903, and the famous double-edged safety razor was patented in 1904. The “Blue” blade marked a major turning point in the company’s history. Faced with a quality crisis in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression, the brand took the unprecedented step of publishing an official letter of apology in the national press. To win back the public, it withdrew its inventory and launched the legendary “Gillette Blue Blade” (the Blue Blade) with an anti-oxidation blue coating, saving the company and cementing its global leadership. Boston, Massachusetts, USA