Judge, 1929-06-15 · page 35 of 36
Judge — June 15, 1929 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Gillette Safety Razor advertisement**, not political satire. The content uses humor to sell razor blades rather than to comment on current events. The "Name Your Beard" chart is a **humorous classification system** organizing nine male face types by skin texture (tender/medium/tough) and beard density (heavy/medium/light). The cartoon faces illustrate each category with exaggerated features—a playful way to suggest that different men have different shaving challenges. The ad's core argument is **anti-boastful**: Gillette claims it doesn't blame beards for poor shaves (as competitors might). Instead, it invested $12 million over ten years in superior blade engineering and quality control. The company positions itself as putting the burden of performance on its product, not the user's facial hair. The "Fifty-Box" promotion offers 50 blades in an attractive chest serving double duty as storage—a practical gift angle for the era. This appears to be vintage advertising, likely early-to-mid 20th century, emphasizing manufacturing precision as a selling point.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TENDER SKIN HEAVY BEARD \ TENDER SKIN MEDIUM BEARD 4 TENDER SKIN LIGHT BEARD MEDIUM SKIN HEAVY BEARD TOUGH SKIN HEAVY BEARD SLLLE MEDIUM SKIN MEDIUM BEARD MEDIUM SKIN LIGHT BEARD 5 ‘Go Yaa NO TOUGH SKIN MEDIUM BEARD dodadabolal, TOUGH SKIN LIGHT BEARD Name your beard, Gentlemen EARDS are past reforming. Blue and bristly or blond and silken, they're all hard to shave—at least you can’t tell their owners otherwise. We don’t try to. It's easier to put the burden on the blade; to use the best and most expensive stecl and to spend, as we have, some $12,000,000 in the past ten years to develop pre- cise and delicate machines that hone and strop that fine steel far beyond the limits of human crafts- manship. It's easier to pay a bonus to workers for every blade they reject which does not come up to the high Gillette standard. True, it makes some difference whether your beard is heavy or silken, your skin sensitive or THE NEW FIFTY-BOX. Fifty fresh double- edged Gillette Blades (10 packets of fives) in a colorful chest that will serve you afterward as a sturdy button box, cigarette box or jewel case, Ideal asa gift, too. $5.00at your dealer's. tough; whether the water is hot or cold, hard or soft; whether you sleptwellorbadlythenight before. But even under the worst pos- sible conditions you can count on the Gillette Blade to do its job smoothly, surely and well. It’s the one constant factor in your daily shave. Gillette Safety Razor Co., Boston, U.S. A. <>