If I was funnier, there’s probably a whole stand up comedy routine in a bottle of liquid soap.
Can you imagine life without a bar of soap? There’d be soap, but only as a liquid.
Next, imagine that someone came up with the idea of soap in the form of a bar. You’d be able to clean yourself faster and easier, plus it’d be cheaper and with less packaging. It’d be progress.
I don’t remember when the push for using liquid body soaps happened, maybe 25 years ago? I do remember seeing ads for liquid body soaps and started noticing it more often in showers. When you actually use it in the shower, you have to stop washing and squeeze out a new dollop for each area of your body that you’re washing.
The picture of bar soap above isn’t enticing. But advertising works. What else explains why some people would switch from a simple, easy to use product, to buying a similar product that’s more expensive and takes longer to use?
Hotels really play into this mindset. They provide small bottles of exclusive looking soap, making people feel as if they’re in a special place. Somehow liquid soap is perceived as a luxury item. But it still does the same thing bar soap does, but takes more of your time to use it.
Sometimes different isn’t better. It’s change, but it’s not progress.