Every day companies compete by inventing by inventing a new product. Some of these things are very useful and we don’t know how we would live without them. Many of these products don’t have much impact on society and fade out throughout the years. Most of us can think of many examples such as: Crystal Pepsi, slap bracelets, pogs, and backpack purses. As we look back at the products invented in the last 25 years, we wonder what type of new products we will invented in the next 25 years.
Of all the new consumer products invented every year, many succeed and many fail, but it’s great looking in from the outside on the new ideas for our future. Who comes up with these ideas! I remember in the late eighties someone invented a torture tool for women, the more I think about it I’m sure a man invented it. It was made for hair removal; I guess you could use it anywhere on the body with hair. It was a mechanical device that yanked hairs from the roots and this supposedly prevented the hair from growing back as fast.
Well, I’m here to tell you this thing was a painful mistake in the inventors’ world. Just five seconds of using this mechanism (and a lot of pain) I decided I would let my legs get as hairy as I could stand. I didn’t need the pain of this root-pulling tool. Needless to say, I wasn’t the only consumer with this opinion; this product took a nosedive into history. This didn’t stop companies; every few months there was a new “tool” for fast, effective hair removal. Of course, none of these have worked so far.
To this day the companies are still trying to promote these products. The companies that gave up the hair removal products started the evolution of pore cleansing strips. Little strips of gluey paper you wet and press on your face. This supposedly removes dirt and oil from the pores in your face. One company put these in stores, and now every company that sells make-up or facial cleansing products has their own version. Thos invention won’t last long because many consumers have realized tape is a faster, cheaper and more effective.
While this isn’t painful like the torturous hair removal creation it’s just another product the world can live without. There have been a lot of very good inventions that (we hope) never cease to exist. I remember buying m first gel pen when I was shopping at Wal-Mart for school supplies. After I finally fought my way through the supplies aisle, I watched the girl in front of me grab the last package of ballpoint pens. I decided to continue shopping. As I reached the middle of the next aisle I saw a display of pens.
The display signs said “new” and “try today”, I walked over to the bright showcase. Orange, Pink, and Purple pens made out of gel to write smoother than ballpoint pens. Well, that girl can just enjoy the last package of ballpoint pens because I found something better. The first day of school when I used my new pens everyone noticed and everyone wanted some. The words I wrote seemed to have a 3-D effect and stood out among all the other papers. Soon after this, gel pens took over the pen world, everyone had gel pens and not in just orange, pink, and purple.
Now you could get a gel pen in every color imaginable, bright and bold colors, ranging from yellow to light blue. This wasn’t enough for newly discovered gel pen lovers: milky gel pens were added to this pen collection. This were pens with a creamy accent added to a bright or pastel color, which created a calm, peaceful pen that brought paper to life. Not long after these became a smash, the glitter gel pen came along sending gel pen lovers out to stores to buy them. When consumers least expected it, there was a new gel pen, a twirled mix of colors that wrote in different shades as the gel was used up.
Half of a word could be blue while the other half is red. These pens were the “thing” and consumers went crazy for them, the stores are still out of them. Gel pens are still alive and kicking. Who knows what they will come up with next! As with all new inventions, when one doesn’t last another one tries the same product. I remember the commercials for Stain Stick It’s so strange how the products work so well in the commercials. Stain Stick worked but it wasn’t strong enough to do the job right.
Most consumers were just happy that it got most of the stain out instead of none. After years of testing and the right formula, Shout was introduced to consumers. This replaced Stain Stick and everyone ran to the stores for Shout. Once people saw that Shout was strong enough to work, Stain Stick was gone for good. As with all successful inventions, this product was improved through Shout Wipes. This is a convenient little pouch to carry in ones purse or wallet in case an accident happened. The stain can then be removed quickly without panic.
Some consumers were skeptical about this really working, but it has proven itself many times. School lunches are destined to be messy, so I’ve always carried a pouch of Shout Wipes in my purse. Since I’m left-handed I have trouble eating lunch while sitting beside someone right-handed. After many accidents my best friend and I traded places. We were hoping this would tone down the amount of accidents at our lunch table and it worked. Thinking we were safe from disasters we sat down at the table talking about how neat our senior shirts were.
We had just received them the day before and everyone looked alike because we liked to advertise that we were seniors. Mine had long sleeves, my friends had short sleeves and they were white with a little logo and our graduation year and our school’s name. The back of our shirts had the signature years down the road. What a day to have spaghetti! We weren’t worried though, because we were less messy since we switched seats. Being very careful not to mess up our shirts, we used our napkins in the correct attention from our food and spill it.
We were finally done eating and started talking; it was amazing how we survived how we survived the spaghetti meal without spilling a thing. Before we realized what was happening my friend was hit in the chest by a saucy meatball. After being so precautious ourselves, someone ruined my friend new senior shirt. We ran to the bathroom, my friends was crying and I was steaming mad. After I calmed her down I remembered my Shout Wipes in my purse. After applying the wipe to the stain, we watched in awe as the stain totally disappeared as the wetness from the wipe dried.
This was one product I can honestly say saved the day. My friend was so pleased she didn’t even complain to the principal about the food fight. The way I see it, some consumer products can really change one’s life for the better. They can make a bad day turn out good, and a mixed up situation work out for the better. As every day goes by we witness new products and try out new inventions. Hopefully, more become a part of everyday society and useful in our lives than forgotten throughout the years, as many have in the past.