Twitter user Mike Stevens alerted us to this issues with the Colgate Spiderman electric toothbrush. While the oscilating head will need to be replaced in three months, the design of the device means that replacement is not possible. A quick search reveals this product is available for $11 at Big W, which is far more expensive than the cheapest manual toothbrushes on offer that come in around $1.50. It also raises a sustainability issue.
This is wrong in so many ways. The design encourages people to not replace the brush and the price reinforces that! What about when junior gets attached to their really cool toothbrush, which is what superhero branding is all about, and mum discovers that it really isn’t affordable to keep replacing it. Just when you thought you had a magic bullet to get the ivories done regularly you get an argument at bed time instead “where’s my spiderman brush, I want it…this brush isn’t any good”.
I wonder how the Colgate Palmolive executives would feel if they personally bought cars that couldn’t be serviced and parts couldn’t be replaced? Oh, and they had to be replaced every six months or year?