As far as I can tell, the first bad, terrible, no-good Super Bowl commercial debuted in 1970. Brand? Gillette. Product? The Techmatic Razor. The bit? Well, the Gillette Techmatic Razor had a little dial on it that let you adjust the setting depending on how thick your beard was. In the commercial (no need to watch it, please), the Gillette Techmatic Razor is a cute little living thing, chattering about its brand-new settings. As the giant man-hand holding the Gillette Techmatic Razor switches the dial up and up and up, the Gillette Techmatic Razor’s voice gets deeper and deeper and deeper, until it boasts, at Vin Diesel’s octave, that it can shave EVEN HEAVIER BEARDS! Again, please: don’t watch it. Bad Super Bowl commercials aren’t as memorable as they are a regrettable tattoo on your brain, bound to live there forever until removed via craniotomy. (I now think of the squeaky Gillette Techmatic Razor every time I pick up my Norelco.) But Mr. Gillette Techmatic Razor was pioneering in one respect. He fronted the first truly awful Super Bowl commercial, inspiring decades of regrettable advertisements during the game. You know, the big football thing watched by millions of p… Click below to read the full story from Esquire
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The Anatomy of a Bad Super Bowl Commercial
