Why did traditional shaving die out in America but not in Europe?

I was responding to why it is experiencing a rebirth now, not as to why it lost steam in the past.

Exactly. I suspect the percentage of consumers who truly do traditional wet shaving to save money is actually tiny.  You said
The younger folk don't know it, but they like to buy things of quality as well. They're accustomed to our throwaway, disposable culture

The fact the buy anything, over and over again. The obsession with collecting 100+ soaps, 20 + razor, far more brushes than one can use in a lifetime all goes back to Bernays. Prior to him, people bought something and kept it forever.

It doesn't matter if its disposable razors or 20 vintage razors, its an obsession to buy buy buy, because "public relations" (i.e., advertising tells you to even though you can't possibly use it in your lifetime).  After all Version 4.3 MUST be better than Version 4.2 even though the consumer might own 10 tubs of V4.2 and V3.9. Buy Buy Buy

McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, etc.  came into there own during the sixties. Everything became faster paced. Suburbs were growing. The fast paced freeway systems began getting our fathers and grandfathers to work. Airline travel increased. Shaving took to much time. We got on a hurry with all the technology that was supposed to simplify our lives. Shaving became a reluctant necessity. Gillette recognized it and marketed accordingly.

I know it sounds crazy but I'm surprised no one has created an app for our smartphones that you put next to your face and you're whiskers are gone.

Don

Everything became faster paced.  ... Shaving took to much time.

Exactly. Time is money. Think .... time is money.

The OP asked Why did traditional shaving die out in America but not in Europe?

This commercial is from 1954. Why would anyone want to use soap and brush when you push a button and its faster, cleaner, and smoother? Shaving soap and brush was so 1938. This was 1954!  This is not a joke, this is reality.

Now ask yourself, do you think the people who used Colgate didn't get a close shave?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbviVopQ...y0VVFRMVuw


And a SMOOTH and CLEAN shave - Burma Shave. Who need a mess soap? It wasn't an accident that Burma Shave signs were on the new highways. Zoom ... gotta go faster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-sCqIxvfx4


Now I might ask, by 1954 had Europe recovered from WWII? Maybe they were too buy making bricks and concrete than worrying about canned shaving cream? So many, to answer the OP, they were late to the table because they were pretty much destroyed?  Just a thought

I think an awful lot of it is the materialism.  People like to buy things.  

Nope, thats the Bacon thing or the Bernays effect. Prior to Bernays, the American consumer did not buy things. They kept products, particularly durable goods, until they broke. They didn't buy new products because they were New and Improved. Listen to the How Stuff Works podcast on Public Relations (aka propoganda). After Bernays, he pretty much convinced everyone they had to buy stuff because it was new.

I'm not convinced everyone is materialistic. I am convinced that propaganda (i.e., public relations) sells to easily influence people. The proof is everywhere.

Bernays published his first book on propaganda and marketing in 1923. Gillette patented and began marketing the New Improved in January, 1920.

Clearly, Gillette did not do this on a whim. A company that size does not "guess" if something is going to work, especially when the Old Type was already, and still, out selling every other razor available in the country.

People were already being marketed and manipulated to accept the idea that "new and improved" was what they needed. Not everyone, but enough to make a company like Gillette, famous for quipping "give them the razor and sell them the blades", rethink the design of a tested and adored razor, and to market it, specifically, as "New and Improved" over the "Old Type".

Im not arguing against the efficacy of Bernays' ideas, for clearly they are valid and working on each of us every day. I'm merwely pointing out that this concept of "new and improved" marketing is older than Bernays ideas...or at least older than the publication of his ideas...

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Im not arguing against the efficacy of Bernays' ideas, for clearly they are valid and working on each of us every day.  I'm merwely pointing out that this concept of "new and improved" marketing is older than Bernays ideas...or at least older than the publication of his ideas...

Yes, Ivy Lee came before him but from what I understand though, he is the one who sold it in a mass way.

Hitler wanted to hire him to spread propaganda. Today the name has been changed from propaganda to public relations to advertising. He turned Hitler down who had to settle for Goebbels.

His clients included P&G, GE, Thomas Edison, NAACP, and four presidents. PR and advertising is what it because of him. He had over 350 clients


http://www.academia.edu/8417816/The_Care...L._Bernays

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Im not arguing against the efficacy of Bernays' ideas, for clearly they are valid and working on each of us every day.  I'm merwely pointing out that this concept of "new and improved" marketing is older than Bernays ideas...or at least older than the publication of his ideas...

Yes, Ivy Lee came before him but from what I understand though, he is the one who sold it in a mass way.

Hitler wanted to hire him to spread propaganda. Today the name has been changed from propaganda to public relations to  advertising. He turned Hitler down who had to settle for Goebbels.

His clients included P&G, GE, Thomas Edison, NAACP, and four presidents. PR and advertising is what it because of him. He had over 350 clients


http://www.academia.edu/8417816/The_Care...L._Bernays

None of which changes the fact that people were buying items under the "new and improved" mentality long before the Bernays Effect can be said to be actively taking place.

Heck, in the 1800's women were buying "new and improved" girdles, and men were buying the "new and improved" Bowie knife.

Purchasing the next greatest gadget is nothing new, and it is not the result of 1 man and his ideas. It is a result of human nature. Everything from keeping up with the Jones to being more productive with less effort leads us to buy into the "new and improved" mentality, regardless of the writings of Bernays. Just because Bernays was able to put it into words that every layman can understand does not mean he birthed the idea, nor should it imply that these tactics were not effective or widespread before he wrote about them.

Call it blasphemy, but Bernays is not rocket science, nor is it particularly groundbreaking. It's pretty basic human psychology...