Wonder why they didn't make it flat from the start, save on material? Only thing I can think of is maybe there's a impalation hazard for pens standing vertically on a surface?
@@LeLaidbackLauncher probably changes in the manufacturing machines. Sometimes tiny irrelevant changes happen because the product can no longer be produced the same way due to changes in machinery.
Are women more prone to choking on a pen than men are? Also, my auto correct tried to complete "pen 15" and it was hard not to let nature take it's course. 😂
@@cisium1184 do you have any idea how many pens students eat? come on bruh... pen lids and ramen be like 69% of the average student meal plan. pen lid used to be a food group. edit: give or take a few point%. variation depending on what timeline you were created. KEKG
Yeah but then again that's for this case. If it isn't broken therefore meaning it works then you don't fix it however it's possible fixing it will end up making it work better such as a machine if it isn't broken then do maintenance and improve the quality until it ends up taking more resources to keep it running than to just replace it entirely. (This is just my opinion I'm not saying your wrong at all im just sayin')
@@Masternoob_69things that really on innovation are different than discretionary products like pens. Pens are a functional purpose. People bought the new phones for status, to not be left behind, for affiliation, the in group or stay connected, ect. Buying a pen isn’t revolutionary. And when your sales process, marketing and everything works without disruption, it’s much better to do MORE. Changing things is important for rapid evolving industries like apple, Tesla, and such of that matter. If you have something dependable, reliable and at a good cost, throwing money at a problem that doesn’t exist is futile
I once had a marketing team share the same open plan office as my team. The utter drivel they discussed was like five year olds with more access to information.
@@otabekisaqov8688 no no, although I had some very bad experience recently with my company's hr department because of the douchbag who runs it, but it plays a vital role for any company.
I feel like it's missing the part where corporate blames the engineer, lays off the QA department, and calls the reduction in wages paid "trimming the fat".
@@dougallen9689 last quarter the engineers made one of the most successful products of all time, so this quarter they are clearly slacking. It's ok though, surely next quarter can't also be worse and this year will continue to see growth from all of our stems in rnd. Can I sell more textbooks if I make the right axiom of choice? I guess we'll just have to wait and zfc.
The thing about lighters is, there isn't much distinction between quality and cheap ones of the end result, a flame is a flame. Bic, Cricket, some no-name ones, who cares as long as it doesn't fall apart. So the Bic way of selling the package and marketing instead of function works there much better than in pens, you can feel better holding a marginally nicer package that performs the same In pens though, there's no comparison between Bic and real modern pens in the actual function of writing. Whether it's Jetstream or G2 or Pentel, there can be individual preferences, but Bic is just a bad pen in a nicely made familiar quality housing
@@NJ-wb1cz there is definitely distinction with lighters. As a heavy smoker lots of lighters end up hurting my fingers because the rock gets used too fast and become hard to trigger, and gas may leak or there is too much of it that goes out, meaning it runs out quicker. I can tell you some last a lot longer than the competition.
@@wl4dymir that's convenience and price, not the end result. I think no name adjustable piezo lighters that are branded by whatever chain supermarket are miles ahead on convenience. And Bic doesn't last longer simply because it's non adjustable and probably ends up being more expensive because of that. I have random ancient lighters laying around everywhere and I don't remember leakage being a problem. But in the end, if you like it, who cares. It's largely an aesthetic thing and in any case we should feel bad using any non refillable lighters equally :)
@@NJ-wb1cz I agree on the non-refillable part. But for the rest it's not just convenience. I'm not sure if I describe it properly (I'm not a native english speaker) but the rock really hit hard on some lighters when they get used and it can be painful on the fingers when you have to activate one that went bad and try it several time. It never seems to go bad on BIC until it is empty. And they don't get empty fast, usually they last a couple months for me, while others seem to get empty a lot sooner which is why I suspect leakage. Anyway I'd be fine trying other brands and benchmarking but I'm just used to buying those as they are everywhere and "just work".
There was 1 change they made. They added a hole to the cap to prevent choking. They also designed some fancier and more ergonomic pens, but kept the original design the same.
"It follows the tragic death on 9 October 1987 of Billy Walker, aged 11. His death followed choking on the top of a Bic pen. The Bic company, the manufacturers of the pen, refused-disgracefully-to discuss the matter with its Member of Parliament."
Fun fact: This pen design was so good and cheap, it literally increased literacy levels all around the world (not joking). Unfun fact (edit): Apparently it's a myth. Source: comments below 👇
Yeah, iirc basically the only pens before this were expensive fountain pens whixh were also hard to use and didn't feel good to write with as they were scratchy (prone to leaking too I think)
Modern fountain pens don't scratch, but that feeling is good anyway. The issue is the ink doesn't dry quick due to needing to be wetter and depositing more ink on the page. They are more consistent, but they are larger, more expensive and they always get ink on your hands when you touch the page or replace an ink cartridge.
@@UnderTheRated The scratchiness is a flaw, I have fountain pens and they feel much better to write with; but I use them less because it is a chore maintaining the tip aligned and with a smooth surface, and they often require more sophisticated expensive paper because the ink is water based (bic style pens are oil based)
myth, the one that increased literacy levels globally was the printing press, newspapers were suddenly so easy to make, millions of them could be made in a matter of days and distributed to an entire nation of 100+ million people.
@@lucasratti Stanley Cups are just soup thermoses that were around for a long long time (over a hundred years). But recently they just made it pastel pink (and other pasty colors) and heavily marked up the prices since they are now every Instagram Girls """new""" favourite thing.
well there's good reason for that, those ink colours are stable and don't fade, the blue can fade a little over time so some really only allows black. Also photocopier and scanners don't pick up colours as well especially when printing or scanning in grey scale or black and white.
At work, I got chastised one too many times for having a blue, not black, pen😂😂. Now I just buy black pens by the package and keep using them until they all got lost or stolen.
The premise at the time was that, products made exclusively for women could also be charged more for, as women tend to consider the mark-up just a reality of life for women to contend with.
@@steadholderharrington9035 The reality is it works. Just not with BIC pens because BIC pens already have a cheap reputation. Women would absolutely buy fancy pens for a high price.
They just make 500 badly made pens that last a month so the buyer still has a working pen to sign a purchase request for the next order of BIC pens 30 days later.
I read somewhere that Chinese companies tried and failed at manufacturing ball point pens becuase they counldn't figure out how to produce such a small balls perfectly round in large quantities.
But that hasn't stopped BIC from sending much of their pen manufacturing to China. Poor quality has turned the reliable, inexpensive BIC pens to unreliable junk.
BIC marketing got one thing right. They are a French Company that recognized that in the 50s Americans wouldn't buy a product that was obviously from another country. Most Americans today don't know that BIC is a French Company.
Also dropped the h from Bich because they knew how it would be pronounced. Shame that Diffusion, Information Communications (DIC) didn't have the same foresight.
The moral to this story... STOP MESSING WITH WHAT IS ALREADY WORKING GREAT! Constantly "improving" or Kaizen is a BS concept that has been ruining the world for decades since Anthony Robbins started preaching it to world leaders and regular people that constant improvement is necessary and that being satisfied with what we have is s a step backwards. That is why we can't find our favorite products anymore and every year everything we uses gets changed or "improved" in some way. That takes perfect products and ruins them for the sake of change. This was a great video! Thank you for taking the time to upload this for everyone to see.
Kaizen works well in the early stages of corporate development- it makes perfecting and optimisation possible- but it's true that at some point you have to call time because you've reached "peak optimisation".
Sometimes you lose because you fail to adapt/innovate, and other times you lose because you try to fix what isn't broken. Knowing when to change and when to stay pat is invaluable to a provenly successful business.
Yeah so usually you just need to figure out the few things your business needs to scale, it’s always more of something or better results from that thing. Like more or better: marketing, sales, hiring/recruitment/training (including managers and supervisors), product/customer experience development. None of this matters if you don’t know your customers, an build a business are them. Most people make a service or product, and try to find people for it. Waste of time. Profitable Companies find serious needs and build businesss that meet those needs. They are very specific about finding early adopters and then shifting to the masses
I once found a case of purple ink. It was special expensive stuff for chart recorders. It never dried out or clogged or anything. I was very poor and used this stuff in my fountain pens for years! Like all the way through college. Now there are good Japanese ball-point pens that I can afford, and nice paper to go with them. Using a cheap pen and cheap paper seems like a punishment, and my handwriting gets worse b/c of the struggle!
@@bsullivan7 I was in IT for 15 years and I've derailed many bad ideas like this by way of the "agree and amplify" technique. For instance, the leadership of a high school (don't ask why I was in this meeting as IT) was deciding on new carpeting for the classrooms. The one that they all agreed looked best was the ugliest of the bunch. For the purpose it actually wasn't bad, in had a nice mixture of all the necessary colors in a nonrepeating pattern that wouldn't get boring. But rather than just say, "I don't like it" when asked for my opinion, I said, "This is a really cool pattern and you all seem to like it so much and I see why. It looks exactly like Bill Cosby's sweater!" I didn't mislead them as I never said that I liked it nor did I make a false association as it really did look like a Cosbey sweater. However, once that truth was spoken into existence, they couldn't unhear it. The result? no one looked at it twice after that and I wasn't invited to anymore room design meetings. I'd say it was a win all around.
Dude, if it's not the 21 year old recent graduate who comes in thinking everyone is a moron except them and so everything needs to change, now in 2024 it's the gender/race warrior that comes in with the mindset of "if you dont let me take control of everything you're a bigot". Both will blame EVERYONE but themselves when their ideas fuck everything up.
Bic. What’s even more amazing than the success of this product ? Up until these days, they are still produced in France. No delocalisation in China or else. More than 200.000 of them produced each and every day.
1) I'm sure it's more than 200 a day! 2) No need to put zeroes after a natural (counting) number. I'm 100.0000% sure 3) Hahaha, gotcha! I was joking, Jean-Luc
@@dixonpinfold2582 in many European countries, 200,000.00 is written 200.000,00. I'm guessing that Malomferi is from one of those countries and means 200,000 where you come from...
A guy in marketing noticed almost every successful product among a shelf of unsellable failures and said "what if we call it this, and say it is for this..?"
Based on my experience I would agree. Every dollar spent on marketing should just go to an experienced IT person or dev team. Simplify the systems, add redundancies, organize systems documentations, identify the high performing employees and give them support resources. Way better use of money.
It's truly ridiculous that Sales and Marketing somehow get the most dollars over Research and Development in many companies. If you make a great product, it markets itself. Otherwise just hire good professionals to make sure the business runs well.
@@ericepperson8409 Minnesota Mining and Minerals (3M) has a policy of investing close to a third of revenues back into R&D, they have 1000s of great products doing nothing, awaiting a marketing mind to "find the need" it fills.
Of course they have sold hundred billion pens. Bic actually employ burglars to steal their bic pens, that is why you can't find one when you want one. :o)
Nah, it is high tech micro black holes. The moment you get away from your Bic it gets sucked out of existence, sometimes it reappears out of nowhere, but only after you buy yet another 5-pack.
The funny thing is, bic pens are among the worst ones. If they wanted to change it, there's ample opportunity to do so. Make them glide and have consistent likes like Jetstream pens, call them Bic+ or something, and bam, you'll hook countless normies on actually joyful experience of writing and they will want to change all the dozens of their Bics to Bic+, creating even more completely pointless waste... Wait no, actually don't do that, you're doing great, Bic.
@@NJ-wb1cz did you not hear him ask if it’s cheap? It was never the intention to make it good. 🤣 I couldn’t be bothered to read more than the first few lines but I’m sure it’s a good stuff….🤭 10 missed calls from bic 🤣
Yeah sometimes there is literally no need. I wish someone told Arnotts that when they tried to change Barbeque Shapes. The first time in my entire life i stopped buying shapes.
There is definitely a need when it comes to writing. Bics aren't selling pens as a product for the need of writing, Bic pens are all design and package with a side effect of being some middling pen Bics have inconsistent lines, aren't flowing properly, and somehow still leak all the time, and get dry and stop working, and don't have anything special going on for them other than habit for the design It's a pen for people who never tried anything else, don't care for writing, or just have the predominant need for autopilot and for not thinking about things. Bic has slowly transformed from a company that sold function to a company that sells feelings of attachment while being among the worst major writing utensils manufacturers in the world. Sort of Masterlock like of pens, all marketing no product
Bic Pens is arguably the closest thing we have for PERFECTION! Simple, efficient, cheap, mass-produceable, disposable if you need, long lasting ( you will lose it or will want to dispose of it before it runs out)
@@dipereira0123 there's probably 1 dude that is at the top of a bic pen stealing network that just collects pens that you can see have low ink, and empty or low lighters like a madman with only the justification of like... Well... They're rare, right? Lmao
See these UA-cam comment people just say shit. This is perfection? Not the airplane that stays afloat, not the GPS system that takes time dialation into account. Like bro.. 50000 things before the pen
Love your content. You humanize corporate decision-making, which is often seen as faceless, alien and distant. All that while explaning what goes on in the world.
He’s humanizing them to better land the comedic element; the comedic element being that they are faceless, sociopathic villains who only seek profits. He’s basically doing live action comic strips. It’s brilliant but, you’ve entirely missed the point.
@@andrewferguson6901 Whether you like it or not, you have to accept that this is a side to Humanity. People dicking others over and / or being excessively selfish.
This is the story of every company that fucks with success. They take something everybody loves and changes one thing, which ruins it. The stories are endless.
This radio thing seems to work pretty well. Why are we wasting all this time and money inventing the television? See how dumb 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' seems now?
@@brettfluhr9973 No, I actually don't see how 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' is dumb. Television wasn't meant to replace radio as it was and is much more expensive, and because radio was, is and will be much more useful to the military and the police.
They did actually tweak the design... of the cap, not the pen itself. They put a hole in the cap so people (especially children) who accidentally swallowed it might avoid suffocation. It was a good move
@@nehpets216 My point was actually that they didn't just come up with that change in a brilliant inspiration, they did it in response to people actually being killed by their products. It was a rhetorical question.
@@ProfoundWizdum Well, if that's your point they changed their product to be safer after 9 deaths in a decade, while if you look at shoelaces the UK has 21 deaths per year due to accidents involving loose / untied shoelaces. So, it's not like it was particularly dangerous in comparison.
@@fuzzblightyear145 you're talking about the hole in the barrel of the pen. The original comment is about the hole in the pen lids, which is to prevent suffocation when ingested.
@@TsarofScars Way to completely and totally misunderstand and misrepresent Reagan. His point was government fucks things up so it's better to not have government involvement. More importantly, he didn't ruin anything.
@@TsarofScars The full Reagan quote is "The 9 scariest words in the English language are 'Im from the government and I'm here to help'." And he was right. His point was that the gov't screws everything up, and the OP was comparing saying that in corpos, marketing also screws things up.
@@SuperBossGiovanniThanks! I was trying to remember it, but it just wasn’t coming to me. He was also the supergenius who said “Read my lips! No new taxes!” (I’d like to see what Bad Lip Reading would do with that! 😂)
There's a principle called "Groupthink," where people in a group, in order to maintain stability, decide not to argue against an idea addressed to the group, even when they know it will likely hurt the group.
I was a victim of groupthink. My manager was off site for a week and one of the women in my group was convinced, and convinced the other workers in my group, that I had made a mistake. I knew I was right but, no matter how much evidence I presented to them, they could not see that I was right. I began to doubt myself but I KNEW I was right. When my manager returned, she straightened out all of that ridiculous "groupthink".
A concept of a cheap disposable pen bundle is amazing, you dont need a marketing team because the concept alone is great for everything. No matter how much time will pass, paper and pen will always be accessable roughly 90% of the time.
Actually the ball point was machined to such ridiculous specifications back in a day without precision equipment and laser cutting tools. The bic is damn near a miracle of modern science.
@@mnzrkNah the actual ball in a ball point pen was only able to be produced to the correct specifications by a handful of manufacturing plants in Japan until very recently. China decided it was a matter of national pride and poured an insane amount of money into being able to produce them and now you’ll occasionally see one of those CCP propaganda accounts bragging that they can produce ball point pens and the USA can’t. Technically, US companies and every other country still buys the balls from the same small number of companies. The real question is who the hell cares? Literally only China.
They did change the cap to have a hole in it, back in the 90s I think, to help with children suffocating from getting it in their airway; not sure how much of a difference it really makes. Also have reformulated the ink a few times.
bro, I absolutely love your videos! You are hilarious!!! Genius! Btw, the hole in the cap is to prevent suffocation in case a baby accidentally lodges it down the pipe... The BIC business case lesson: don't fix it if it's not broken... lol cheers mate, keep 'em coming! Let's gooooooo!
I'll forever believe bic employs a witch to cast a spell on the pens and lighters because every single time I buy a lighter or steal a pen from the bank both go missing, I dont think ive ever used a bic lighter till it ran out
Very silly phrase. Just because something works doesn't mean it can't be better. Innovation is literally the process of "fixing" what is currently working to make it better. Telling stories around a fire works for keeping a history of your culture so why bother coming up with a system of writing? See how that's silly?
@@brettfluhr9973and that's why we have 10 billion new products every year, and at the end of the day the good old clear bic pen that just works and is cheap outsells them all
@@vecvanit didn't help sales though, and we are literally discussing it as a marketing failure. Causing a fire that burns out of control while you are acting fire chief isn't exactly a win. Marketing could have literally done anything else and it would have worked out better. Typical "politimarketing" scheme ends in failure. Classic
It's worth mentioning that in 1991 Bic made a design change of their caps which consisted of adding a hole on the cap tip in order to avoid choking hazard in case of accidental swallowing by children (or adults). Many lives might have been saved since then thanks to such little design change.
I'll give props to the Bic lighter guy I've both spent & accidentally pocketed more of their lighters then I have both bought or just borrowed a Bic pen
@@Mayhzonno, it was the perfect time to cash in on identity politics, but they went the wrong route. Making a pink pen advertised "for women" was a dumb move when the zeitgeist of the day was how women were exactly equal to men, indistinguishable even. If I remember this was around the time of the whole "pink tax" fiasco where "women were forced to pay more for pink items" and would get pissed off when you told them to just buy the blue version
@@user-nb8yt2il2r Deep thoughts and good observation. They would have been better off selling all colors as an "inclusive Rainbow" packet. Red is commonly used for corrections and green, too. Blue and Black are commonly used anyway. Only pink and yellow would have been questionable. Alas, they did not think that far ahead.
Still one of the best pens out there, I’ve had one for 5 years now as a flight engineer, a female pilot gave it to me to write with after a flight and she told me to keep it and I still use it daily by changing out the ink tube when it runs out from another BIC pen. Solid product.
"do you like sex? Do you like drugs? You ever seen them blatantly advertised?... you got a good product people will hear about it" - doig Stanhope- comedian.
The unbelievable innovation and design genius that went into the classic Bic ballpoint pen can not be understated. Its cheapness and wide availability essentially made pens and writing materials in general accessible to everyone, even the poorest among us.
I always liked using blue pens because it was an officially approved color for paperwork. I'd often get my signature struck out and asked to fix it afterwards with a black pen instead.
I get the joke but actually, Bic pens did change substantially over time. Originally, the entire point assembly was made of brass then changed to plastic. The Ink used to leak out of the open end so they added something on top of the ink to prevent that. The cap originally did not have a hole at the top. That was done to mitigate possible suffocation if a child got the cap stuck in his throat. You're welcome!
I like those sligthly foggy gray ones, I remember fitting a cheat sheet in them for any tests that I had. Worked everytime, haven't been caught even once.
Pens, lighters, and razors. Hell of a company.
Surfboards too
@@ShmeeegzBIC surfboards?!?
Bic products have to be some of the most internationally well known products in history.
The two most stolen items of all time pens and fucken lighters
@@jordonlegge448😂 that's why they sell so many too. Everyone's buying replacements.
Behind every bad corpor decision, there's always someone who says no and gets shunned to the side🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Amen
every good decision too
@@sirhulk5325 im just gona say that
And every good decision, pointless comment
Why do you think it matters so much who is at the top?
Fun fact, they changed 2 things in the design, they added a hole against choking hazard, and made the pen cap flat on its top.
Wonder why they didn't make it flat from the start, save on material? Only thing I can think of is maybe there's a impalation hazard for pens standing vertically on a surface?
@@LeLaidbackLauncher probably changes in the manufacturing machines.
Sometimes tiny irrelevant changes happen because the product can no longer be produced the same way due to changes in machinery.
It stops the pen rolling
The chocking hazzard is a myth, the hole is to avoid having a vacuum inside that could prevent the ink from flowing
Are women more prone to choking on a pen than men are?
Also, my auto correct tried to complete "pen 15" and it was hard not to let nature take it's course. 😂
They don't even need a marketing division at this point, they sell themselves
Yeah I expected him to go "we have a marketing department? Why?".
Ofc😮
Basically a raw material at this point, the government should come in and make it regulated
Bic pens might be the only nonedible thing the French have done right.
@@cisium1184 do you have any idea how many pens students eat? come on bruh... pen lids and ramen be like 69% of the average student meal plan. pen lid used to be a food group. edit: give or take a few point%. variation depending on what timeline you were created. KEKG
Literally the perfect example of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
Yeah but then again that's for this case. If it isn't broken therefore meaning it works then you don't fix it however it's possible fixing it will end up making it work better such as a machine if it isn't broken then do maintenance and improve the quality until it ends up taking more resources to keep it running than to just replace it entirely. (This is just my opinion I'm not saying your wrong at all im just sayin')
Tell that to Nokia. Where are they now??
Or Fuji films. Didn’t hop on digital cameras because normal film was working so great atm
@@Masternoob_69things that really on innovation are different than discretionary products like pens. Pens are a functional purpose. People bought the new phones for status, to not be left behind, for affiliation, the in group or stay connected, ect. Buying a pen isn’t revolutionary. And when your sales process, marketing and everything works without disruption, it’s much better to do MORE. Changing things is important for rapid evolving industries like apple, Tesla, and such of that matter. If you have something dependable, reliable and at a good cost, throwing money at a problem that doesn’t exist is futile
And the problem that a lot of places have is they get this mentality of adding "improvements" and "fixing it" until it breaks!`
"please don't do that"
Perfect delivery lol
'The boys in marketing have had an idea' - basically how EVERY bad decision starts.
Should be the "girls in marketing" though
Parasites.
@@IdeesDePhysiqueNah, it was definitely the boys in MKT
I once had a marketing team share the same open plan office as my team. The utter drivel they discussed was like five year olds with more access to information.
either marketing or HR.
That sums up marketing departments perfectly... closely followed by HR.
I heard that HR is useless .
I can hear some info here 😊
@@otabekisaqov8688 no no, although I had some very bad experience recently with my company's hr department because of the douchbag who runs it, but it plays a vital role for any company.
Tits on a bull
I feel like it's missing the part where corporate blames the engineer, lays off the QA department, and calls the reduction in wages paid "trimming the fat".
@@dougallen9689 last quarter the engineers made one of the most successful products of all time, so this quarter they are clearly slacking. It's ok though, surely next quarter can't also be worse and this year will continue to see growth from all of our stems in rnd. Can I sell more textbooks if I make the right axiom of choice? I guess we'll just have to wait and zfc.
BIC - Creator of 2 of the most "can I borrow that and I'll give it back right after" items of all time.
OK. Now so you need to tell the non American audience what the other one is
@AhmedFaraz936 pretty sure you're not talking for the whole of the non Americans.
@@AhmedFaraz936 Bruv... in Germany, BIC is mainly known for their lighters and not for their cheap-ass pen
I thought I was the only one that borrowed used razors.
@Igor_054 lighters and pens, who uses someone else's razor 🤢
They did expand into cigarette lighters, and are probably the best in the world.
Cheap, reliable, i lose them before they run out.
The thing about lighters is, there isn't much distinction between quality and cheap ones of the end result, a flame is a flame. Bic, Cricket, some no-name ones, who cares as long as it doesn't fall apart. So the Bic way of selling the package and marketing instead of function works there much better than in pens, you can feel better holding a marginally nicer package that performs the same
In pens though, there's no comparison between Bic and real modern pens in the actual function of writing. Whether it's Jetstream or G2 or Pentel, there can be individual preferences, but Bic is just a bad pen in a nicely made familiar quality housing
@@NJ-wb1czi wouldnt say bic is a bad pen. Just an ok pen that does the job
@@NJ-wb1cz there is definitely distinction with lighters. As a heavy smoker lots of lighters end up hurting my fingers because the rock gets used too fast and become hard to trigger, and gas may leak or there is too much of it that goes out, meaning it runs out quicker. I can tell you some last a lot longer than the competition.
@@wl4dymir that's convenience and price, not the end result. I think no name adjustable piezo lighters that are branded by whatever chain supermarket are miles ahead on convenience. And Bic doesn't last longer simply because it's non adjustable and probably ends up being more expensive because of that. I have random ancient lighters laying around everywhere and I don't remember leakage being a problem.
But in the end, if you like it, who cares. It's largely an aesthetic thing and in any case we should feel bad using any non refillable lighters equally :)
@@NJ-wb1cz I agree on the non-refillable part. But for the rest it's not just convenience. I'm not sure if I describe it properly (I'm not a native english speaker) but the rock really hit hard on some lighters when they get used and it can be painful on the fingers when you have to activate one that went bad and try it several time. It never seems to go bad on BIC until it is empty. And they don't get empty fast, usually they last a couple months for me, while others seem to get empty a lot sooner which is why I suspect leakage.
Anyway I'd be fine trying other brands and benchmarking but I'm just used to buying those as they are everywhere and "just work".
There was 1 change they made. They added a hole to the cap to prevent choking. They also designed some fancier and more ergonomic pens, but kept the original design the same.
"It follows the tragic death on 9 October 1987 of Billy Walker, aged 11. His death followed choking on the top of a Bic pen. The Bic company, the manufacturers of the pen, refused-disgracefully-to discuss the matter with its Member of Parliament."
@@jorisbongssongood decision.
The parliament wouldnt help with anything
@@jorisbongsson Natural selection.
@@cattysplatdon't be a tool
@@happybeerlove SOoo.. Your not a big fan of free speech then?
Fun fact: This pen design was so good and cheap, it literally increased literacy levels all around the world (not joking).
Unfun fact (edit): Apparently it's a myth. Source: comments below 👇
Yeah, iirc basically the only pens before this were expensive fountain pens whixh were also hard to use and didn't feel good to write with as they were scratchy (prone to leaking too I think)
Modern fountain pens don't scratch, but that feeling is good anyway. The issue is the ink doesn't dry quick due to needing to be wetter and depositing more ink on the page. They are more consistent, but they are larger, more expensive and they always get ink on your hands when you touch the page or replace an ink cartridge.
Nope. That's a myth. The only invention that increased literacy levels was the printing press.
@@UnderTheRated The scratchiness is a flaw, I have fountain pens and they feel much better to write with; but I use them less because it is a chore maintaining the tip aligned and with a smooth surface, and they often require more sophisticated expensive paper because the ink is water based (bic style pens are oil based)
myth, the one that increased literacy levels globally was the printing press, newspapers were suddenly so easy to make, millions of them could be made in a matter of days and distributed to an entire nation of 100+ million people.
Their mistake was not charging 40$ for a pink version, like Stanley did.
ha
? What are you referring to ?
@@lucasratti Stanley Cups are just soup thermoses that were around for a long long time (over a hundred years). But recently they just made it pastel pink (and other pasty colors) and heavily marked up the prices since they are now every Instagram Girls """new""" favourite thing.
@@lucasratti Stanley cups
Same with the razors.
Honestly, the main reason I never had to purchase a pink pen was because the government only allows black or blue ink but mainly black.
The black they DO like 🔥 😤 😮💨
well there's good reason for that, those ink colours are stable and don't fade, the blue can fade a little over time so some really only allows black. Also photocopier and scanners don't pick up colours as well especially when printing or scanning in grey scale or black and white.
Yeah, for this section of pens you really only need black, blue and red.
This is very discriminatory toward white colored ink.
At work, I got chastised one too many times for having a blue, not black, pen😂😂.
Now I just buy black pens by the package and keep using them until they all got lost or stolen.
"Marketing for women" was the mistake. Should've just made the Pink and Purple ink pens and marketed them for everyone.
The premise at the time was that, products made exclusively for women could also be charged more for, as women tend to consider the mark-up just a reality of life for women to contend with.
@@steadholderharrington9035 The reality is it works. Just not with BIC pens because BIC pens already have a cheap reputation. Women would absolutely buy fancy pens for a high price.
Or wait until now and advertise it for the diverse🤣🤣🤣👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
No thats gay
I would write in purple ink. Pink would be too difficult to see.
BiC is so good at being ultra precise with their metal AND cost effective, that China still hasnt worked out how to make pens on that scale
THats actually insane
They just make 500 badly made pens that last a month so the buyer still has a working pen to sign a purchase request for the next order of BIC pens 30 days later.
@@REALfish1552 if your bic pen is that bad i don't know what to tell you, sounds like a self-report on a skill issue
I read somewhere that Chinese companies tried and failed at manufacturing ball point pens becuase they counldn't figure out how to produce such a small balls perfectly round in large quantities.
But that hasn't stopped BIC from sending much of their pen manufacturing to China. Poor quality has turned the reliable, inexpensive BIC pens to unreliable junk.
BIC marketing got one thing right. They are a French Company that recognized that in the 50s Americans wouldn't buy a product that was obviously from another country. Most Americans today don't know that BIC is a French Company.
I didn't know it was french, i thought it was german.
I thought it was American 💀
Today I learned......LOL
Still would've bought them anyway knowing that :) they are good pens!
Also dropped the h from Bich because they knew how it would be pronounced.
Shame that Diffusion, Information Communications (DIC) didn't have the same foresight.
I knew it was French. Je t'aime le Bic!
The moral to this story... STOP MESSING WITH WHAT IS ALREADY WORKING GREAT! Constantly "improving" or Kaizen is a BS concept that has been ruining the world for decades since Anthony Robbins started preaching it to world leaders and regular people that constant improvement is necessary and that being satisfied with what we have is s a step backwards. That is why we can't find our favorite products anymore and every year everything we uses gets changed or "improved" in some way. That takes perfect products and ruins them for the sake of change. This was a great video! Thank you for taking the time to upload this for everyone to see.
Kaizen works well in the early stages of corporate development- it makes perfecting and optimisation possible- but it's true that at some point you have to call time because you've reached "peak optimisation".
@@RandR55 Agreed!
Aint going to lie, in the 80s everybody wanted BIC's iconic 4 colour retractable pen.
Still want it 40 years later
And everybody got their lips pinched.
@@doomguy974 They still make it and you can still buy it. I saw a display of them less than a week ago.
I have several of them. I use one everyday.
@davetdowell i have one, it's the only pen i use lol
Bic for Her™... sure was something
For misus.. BIC pens matters 😉
Tell me they didnt use that slogan... oh for the love of God hahaha
Bic are also shaving razors so it might have been used 😂
Long & Thicc Lady Bic's
If they marketed it towards breast cancer research and gave like a tenth of a cent per pen sold to charity, it would do great.
Sometimes you lose because you fail to adapt/innovate, and other times you lose because you try to fix what isn't broken.
Knowing when to change and when to stay pat is invaluable to a provenly successful business.
Yeah so usually you just need to figure out the few things your business needs to scale, it’s always more of something or better results from that thing. Like more or better: marketing, sales, hiring/recruitment/training (including managers and supervisors), product/customer experience development.
None of this matters if you don’t know your customers, an build a business are them. Most people make a service or product, and try to find people for it. Waste of time. Profitable
Companies find serious needs and build businesss that meet those needs. They are very specific about finding early adopters and then shifting to the masses
You got to know when to hold’em, known when to fold’em.
And sometimes, a fuckup can result in more sales, like what happened to New Coke.
I once found a case of purple ink. It was special expensive stuff for chart recorders. It never dried out or clogged or anything. I was very poor and used this stuff in my fountain pens for years! Like all the way through college. Now there are good Japanese ball-point pens that I can afford, and nice paper to go with them. Using a cheap pen and cheap paper seems like a punishment, and my handwriting gets worse b/c of the struggle!
Been in IT for 20+ years, can't even begin to count how many of these situations I've been a witness to...
My brother was in IT for over 40 years, and he saw many disasters in this way too.
@@bsullivan7 I was in IT for 15 years and I've derailed many bad ideas like this by way of the "agree and amplify" technique.
For instance, the leadership of a high school (don't ask why I was in this meeting as IT) was deciding on new carpeting for the classrooms. The one that they all agreed looked best was the ugliest of the bunch. For the purpose it actually wasn't bad, in had a nice mixture of all the necessary colors in a nonrepeating pattern that wouldn't get boring. But rather than just say, "I don't like it" when asked for my opinion, I said, "This is a really cool pattern and you all seem to like it so much and I see why. It looks exactly like Bill Cosby's sweater!"
I didn't mislead them as I never said that I liked it nor did I make a false association as it really did look like a Cosbey sweater. However, once that truth was spoken into existence, they couldn't unhear it. The result? no one looked at it twice after that and I wasn't invited to anymore room design meetings. I'd say it was a win all around.
Dude, if it's not the 21 year old recent graduate who comes in thinking everyone is a moron except them and so everything needs to change, now in 2024 it's the gender/race warrior that comes in with the mindset of "if you dont let me take control of everything you're a bigot". Both will blame EVERYONE but themselves when their ideas fuck everything up.
Bic. What’s even more amazing than the success of this product ? Up until these days, they are still produced in France. No delocalisation in China or else. More than 200.000 of them produced each and every day.
Maybe corporate accountants and politicians could learn something from this.
Well production is obviously entirely automated. Labor costs are nil, no matter where they are.
1) I'm sure it's more than 200 a day!
2) No need to put zeroes after a natural (counting) number. I'm 100.0000% sure
3) Hahaha, gotcha! I was joking, Jean-Luc
@@dixonpinfold2582 in many European countries, 200,000.00 is written 200.000,00. I'm guessing that Malomferi is from one of those countries and means 200,000 where you come from...
@@user-aero68 You failed to read point #3.
As someone who works in corporate America and has to deal with the marketing dept, they are THE most useless department in most corporations 😒
A guy in marketing noticed almost every successful product among a shelf of unsellable failures and said "what if we call it this, and say it is for this..?"
Based on my experience I would agree. Every dollar spent on marketing should just go to an experienced IT person or dev team.
Simplify the systems, add redundancies, organize systems documentations, identify the high performing employees and give them support resources. Way better use of money.
It's truly ridiculous that Sales and Marketing somehow get the most dollars over Research and Development in many companies. If you make a great product, it markets itself. Otherwise just hire good professionals to make sure the business runs well.
@@ericepperson8409 Minnesota Mining and Minerals (3M) has a policy of investing close to a third of revenues back into R&D, they have 1000s of great products doing nothing, awaiting a marketing mind to "find the need" it fills.
The invention of BiC pens is a significant contributor to the global reduction in illiteracy.
Faxx🎉🎉🎉
Nope, taco bell!
Pencils with erasers.
@@cheeseballs3825Taco Bell is popular in one country....
@@turtleanton6539Basically a raw material at this point, the government should come in and make it regulated
Of course they have sold hundred billion pens. Bic actually employ burglars to steal their bic pens, that is why you can't find one when you want one. :o)
Nah, it is high tech micro black holes. The moment you get away from your Bic it gets sucked out of existence, sometimes it reappears out of nowhere, but only after you buy yet another 5-pack.
Get a pentree
Same with their lighters
I just thought they turned into coat hangers. I’ve got millions of them but have never bought one.
They definitely employ someone to steal the lids.
They're not just cheap, they're really good too. Bics are some of the best ball points you can buy
They’re not. But they work well enough and are very cheap. That’s the key.
Don't change what's working
And if you desperately need to change, make sure you don't change into something sexist or the like lol
Nokia...
What you meant to say was, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. 🤭
The funny thing is, bic pens are among the worst ones. If they wanted to change it, there's ample opportunity to do so. Make them glide and have consistent likes like Jetstream pens, call them Bic+ or something, and bam, you'll hook countless normies on actually joyful experience of writing and they will want to change all the dozens of their Bics to Bic+, creating even more completely pointless waste...
Wait no, actually don't do that, you're doing great, Bic.
@@NJ-wb1cz did you not hear him ask if it’s cheap? It was never the intention to make it good. 🤣 I couldn’t be bothered to read more than the first few lines but I’m sure it’s a good stuff….🤭
10 missed calls from bic 🤣
Yeah sometimes there is literally no need.
I wish someone told Arnotts that when they tried to change Barbeque Shapes. The first time in my entire life i stopped buying shapes.
There is definitely a need when it comes to writing. Bics aren't selling pens as a product for the need of writing, Bic pens are all design and package with a side effect of being some middling pen
Bics have inconsistent lines, aren't flowing properly, and somehow still leak all the time, and get dry and stop working, and don't have anything special going on for them other than habit for the design
It's a pen for people who never tried anything else, don't care for writing, or just have the predominant need for autopilot and for not thinking about things. Bic has slowly transformed from a company that sold function to a company that sells feelings of attachment while being among the worst major writing utensils manufacturers in the world. Sort of Masterlock like of pens, all marketing no product
@@NJ-wb1cza cheap and simple writing implement is good for places that need to improve their literacy
@@NJ-wb1czbest-selling
You can tell that the change wasn’t a issue of a better recipe, looks to me recipes change everytime corporate wants to make cut backs
Amen ! Why they did that I never know.
recently they've made them thinner and rounder to save on plastic costs. also the new design made good excuse for a price hike during inflation
I've never thought about it, but a job in marketing for Bic would be the best job ever. You'd have nothing to do. 😂
That's the thing about marketing. If people need or want your product you don't need to market it.
@@user-nb8yt2il2r there prolly not just marketing for bic
Hey. Someone needs to order that store sign that says: "Pens Here"
Bic Pens is arguably the closest thing we have for PERFECTION!
Simple, efficient, cheap, mass-produceable, disposable if you need, long lasting ( you will lose it or will want to dispose of it before it runs out)
It's certainly the best pen for the least money, but there are much better pens.
@@dipereira0123 there's probably 1 dude that is at the top of a bic pen stealing network that just collects pens that you can see have low ink, and empty or low lighters like a madman with only the justification of like... Well... They're rare, right? Lmao
See these UA-cam comment people just say shit. This is perfection? Not the airplane that stays afloat, not the GPS system that takes time dialation into account. Like bro.. 50000 things before the pen
Disposable?
Why not a pen where you dont need to dispose it? One you keep for 50 years instead?
@@DaimonTrilogy because people lose small items like pens all the time.
Lessons learned:
1. Don’t fuck with your core product.
2. Don’t fucking pander when all you sell is a pen.
Love your content.
You humanize corporate decision-making, which is often seen as faceless, alien and distant. All that while explaning what goes on in the world.
There was nothing human about this
@@andrewferguson6901the characters in the video are chill tho
He’s humanizing them to better land the comedic element; the comedic element being that they are faceless, sociopathic villains who only seek profits. He’s basically doing live action comic strips. It’s brilliant but, you’ve entirely missed the point.
Corporate is dehumanised
@@andrewferguson6901
Whether you like it or not, you have to accept that this is a side to Humanity.
People dicking others over and / or being excessively selfish.
"Please don't do that" Hilarious
This is the story of every company that fucks with success. They take something everybody loves and changes one thing, which ruins it. The stories are endless.
Yeah marketing teams need to learn the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
This radio thing seems to work pretty well. Why are we wasting all this time and money inventing the television?
See how dumb 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' seems now?
@@brettfluhr9973 shut up
@@brettfluhr9973shut up
Good marketing teams do exactly that, and spend their time doing actual useful things.
@@brettfluhr9973 No, I actually don't see how 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' is dumb. Television wasn't meant to replace radio as it was and is much more expensive, and because radio was, is and will be much more useful to the military and the police.
They did actually tweak the design... of the cap, not the pen itself. They put a hole in the cap so people (especially children) who accidentally swallowed it might avoid suffocation. It was a good move
I wonder how many people died before they did that.
@@ProfoundWizdum It looks like 9 in the UK, and all were under 14... I didn't find a definitive number for any other countries.
@@nehpets216 My point was actually that they didn't just come up with that change in a brilliant inspiration, they did it in response to people actually being killed by their products.
It was a rhetorical question.
@@ProfoundWizdum Well, if that's your point they changed their product to be safer after 9 deaths in a decade, while if you look at shoelaces the UK has 21 deaths per year due to accidents involving loose / untied shoelaces. So, it's not like it was particularly dangerous in comparison.
@@nehpets216 that's not a valid comparison and you should know that.
It's so silly I'm not even gonna explain it.
This was my job for 20 years. This works perfectly. This is supper efficient. MANAGEMENT, hey, let's fuck with it!!!
Fun Fact: They did change the design. They added holes on the top so that kids could live after those get stuck in their mouths.
Wow. Incredible.
That's really socially responsible move!
They added that in 1989
The hole in the barrel equalizes the air pressure.
@@pepelemoko01 so glad someone else actually knows the real reason
@@fuzzblightyear145 you're talking about the hole in the barrel of the pen. The original comment is about the hole in the pen lids, which is to prevent suffocation when ingested.
Makes me think of that Reagan quote, but instead of the government it's:
'I'm from marketing, and we've got a new idea.'”
man, reagan just being the fed version of a marketing team really explains how he managed to irreversibly fuck this country so efficiently
@@TsarofScars Way to completely and totally misunderstand and misrepresent Reagan. His point was government fucks things up so it's better to not have government involvement. More importantly, he didn't ruin anything.
@@TsarofScarsyou know Raegan was an amazing president because the punks had the time and money to make incredible music lmao. Hasn't happened since
@@TsarofScars The full Reagan quote is "The 9 scariest words in the English language are 'Im from the government and I'm here to help'." And he was right. His point was that the gov't screws everything up, and the OP was comparing saying that in corpos, marketing also screws things up.
@@SuperBossGiovanniThanks! I was trying to remember it, but it just wasn’t coming to me. He was also the supergenius who said “Read my lips! No new taxes!” (I’d like to see what Bad Lip Reading would do with that! 😂)
They're so simple, yet so comfortable. The design is flawless for what it is.
BIC have stringent QC too. The ballpoints are made of tungsten carbide.
There's a principle called "Groupthink," where people in a group, in order to maintain stability, decide not to argue against an idea addressed to the group, even when they know it will likely hurt the group.
A bad plan is better than no plan or something like that.
@Official-Fake I cant stand this mentality. And when you object or disapprove then you are the asshole.
I was a victim of groupthink. My manager was off site for a week and one of the women in my group was convinced, and convinced the other workers in my group, that I had made a mistake. I knew I was right but, no matter how much evidence I presented to them, they could not see that I was right. I began to doubt myself but I KNEW I was right. When my manager returned, she straightened out all of that ridiculous "groupthink".
A textbook example of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. Their tag line should be "BIC - it just works"
A concept of a cheap disposable pen bundle is amazing, you dont need a marketing team because the concept alone is great for everything.
No matter how much time will pass, paper and pen will always be accessable roughly 90% of the time.
Actually the ball point was machined to such ridiculous specifications back in a day without precision equipment and laser cutting tools. The bic is damn near a miracle of modern science.
Akshulley
I doubt the precision there is any better than any ball bearings and those been around for a while
@@mnzrkNah the actual ball in a ball point pen was only able to be produced to the correct specifications by a handful of manufacturing plants in Japan until very recently. China decided it was a matter of national pride and poured an insane amount of money into being able to produce them and now you’ll occasionally see one of those CCP propaganda accounts bragging that they can produce ball point pens and the USA can’t. Technically, US companies and every other country still buys the balls from the same small number of companies. The real question is who the hell cares? Literally only China.
@@mnzrkbut not at that scale
@@mnzrktolerances are actually tighter on a Bic than in a bearing with similar sized balls.
The only interview where "sell me this pen" actually makes sense
Marketing team came in strong with the 4 pen, I was a god In geography class just for whipping one of those out of my pencil case
They did change the cap to have a hole in it, back in the 90s I think, to help with children suffocating from getting it in their airway; not sure how much of a difference it really makes. Also have reformulated the ink a few times.
80% pen, 20% chew toy
bro, I absolutely love your videos! You are hilarious!!! Genius! Btw, the hole in the cap is to prevent suffocation in case a baby accidentally lodges it down the pipe...
The BIC business case lesson: don't fix it if it's not broken... lol
cheers mate, keep 'em coming! Let's gooooooo!
The best under cover spit wad shooters EVER.
Love it when a company does something that screws themselves up. Looking at you, Levi!
what are you looking at, stop
Even if they just did "Colour Bic" and a range of colours it could have been something
I mean red works, yah?
Adding any color works, but marketing it for women, now that's where it failed lol
I've had green Bic pens as a kid too. They just fucked up the marketing of what would have been a pretty non-controversial thing
Only for mistakes
they did. there is a iconic 3,4 and even 10 colour retractable since the late 80s.
@@dagoelius I remember using a multicolour retractable at school during the 1960s. Loved that pen, teachers less when they looked over my shoulder.
The literal definition of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” 😂
"it was a bad idea"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'll forever believe bic employs a witch to cast a spell on the pens and lighters because every single time I buy a lighter or steal a pen from the bank both go missing, I dont think ive ever used a bic lighter till it ran out
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
If it ain't broke...
Fix it!
- Marketing team.
Very silly phrase. Just because something works doesn't mean it can't be better. Innovation is literally the process of "fixing" what is currently working to make it better. Telling stories around a fire works for keeping a history of your culture so why bother coming up with a system of writing? See how that's silly?
@@brettfluhr9973 I see how silly your pseudo-intellectual attempt at constructing an applicable critique is.
... it will be.
@@brettfluhr9973and that's why we have 10 billion new products every year, and at the end of the day the good old clear bic pen that just works and is cheap outsells them all
Try doing one on Barq's "Collapse of the Soviet Union" promo. Absolutely batsh insane
Them pens with 4 colours are amazing. Immediately stand out too
literally one of the most successful consumer products in human history, but the marketing execs need to justify their paychecks
well, bad promo ist still promo, seeing you talk about it right there, isn't it? 😅
@@vecvanit didn't help sales though, and we are literally discussing it as a marketing failure. Causing a fire that burns out of control while you are acting fire chief isn't exactly a win. Marketing could have literally done anything else and it would have worked out better. Typical "politimarketing" scheme ends in failure. Classic
marketing. that's the part of company consuming the biggest part of the budget while ruining most of your products
To be fair this is far and away my favorite pen on the market. I can't explain why but they write so damn well.
It's worth mentioning that in 1991 Bic made a design change of their caps which consisted of adding a hole on the cap tip in order to avoid choking hazard in case of accidental swallowing by children (or adults). Many lives might have been saved since then thanks to such little design change.
I'll give props to the Bic lighter guy
I've both spent & accidentally pocketed more of their lighters then I have both bought or just borrowed a Bic pen
Parece aqueles planos infalíveis do Cebolinha para derrotar a Mônica. 😂😂😂
A lesson for jack daniels, bud light, harley davidson, tractor supply, etc etc etc.
Too late for any of them now!
None of those companies are hurting bc a small minority of people are anti-“woke”
Why would they even…….. my god lol
Just a few years too early for identity politics tbh.
They were going for that clearly. Just unfortunate timing.
@@Mayhzon *years
@@Mayhzonno, it was the perfect time to cash in on identity politics, but they went the wrong route. Making a pink pen advertised "for women" was a dumb move when the zeitgeist of the day was how women were exactly equal to men, indistinguishable even. If I remember this was around the time of the whole "pink tax" fiasco where "women were forced to pay more for pink items" and would get pissed off when you told them to just buy the blue version
@@AlbertaGeek Yes. Thanks.
@@user-nb8yt2il2r
Deep thoughts and good observation. They would have been better off selling all colors as an "inclusive Rainbow" packet.
Red is commonly used for corrections and green, too. Blue and Black are commonly used anyway. Only pink and yellow would have been questionable.
Alas, they did not think that far ahead.
The snotty “Zup?” Had me. 😂 I deal with that every now and then.
Still one of the best pens out there, I’ve had one for 5 years now as a flight engineer, a female pilot gave it to me to write with after a flight and she told me to keep it and I still use it daily by changing out the ink tube when it runs out from another BIC pen. Solid product.
Most incredible part of these pens is that they sent one back in time for Ann Frank to use when writing her diary.
They sent one back to Helen Keller too!
...course, she didn't know what to do with it...😶
Bit of trivia for you, the hole in the top of the cap is in case they're swallowed a bit of air can still get through.
Of the 100b, 90b were lost with nearly full ink tanks.
"do you like sex? Do you like drugs? You ever seen them blatantly advertised?... you got a good product people will hear about it" - doig Stanhope- comedian.
The unbelievable innovation and design genius that went into the classic Bic ballpoint pen can not be understated.
Its cheapness and wide availability essentially made pens and writing materials in general accessible to everyone, even the poorest among us.
“They Cheap, They Work” should be Bic’s new motto
"We need to drive growth" in this most successful thing ever that is already at peak capacity...
Pretty much sums up the last 75yrs! 50 years of excellence and then we said hey let's try a few tweaks and hey presto a 75yr reset🤔
"it was a bad idea." Well, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE! 😂
I always liked using blue pens because it was an officially approved color for paperwork.
I'd often get my signature struck out and asked to fix it afterwards with a black pen instead.
I have a feeling this is EXACTLY how that conversation went
behind every corporation is a marketing team ready to take it all down
I get the joke but actually, Bic pens did change substantially over time. Originally, the entire point assembly was made of brass then changed to plastic. The Ink used to leak out of the open end so they added something on top of the ink to prevent that. The cap originally did not have a hole at the top. That was done to mitigate possible suffocation if a child got the cap stuck in his throat. You're welcome!
BIC as a company is the ultimate expression of allowing an engineer to find the intersection of good enough and cheap enough.
It'll be used to write one the most influential diary in history
I love the old Bic Cristal blue pens. Looks lovely and sparkly!
😂😂😂 pretty much every corporate company!!
"This is what we got"
"Great!! They cheap??"
"Yepp!!"
"They work?!?"
"Ehhh, sometimes."
"Nicely, Done!!"
😂😂😂
I’ve been using these pens for over 20 years, best pens I’ve ever used.
BiC pens and lighters have literally been the best and most reliable for decades.
Bic tag line,, if it ain't broke, don't try n fix it.😂
I meannnnnnn there was a change. The plastic covers were changed from being pointy to being open at the end. Iykyk what I’m talking about. 😂😂😂😂😂😂
One of my favorite pens. Cheap and reliable for notes.
Not bad pens or lighters. Smart company. Analog and simplicity works!!
Ok, as a woman, I REALLY liked the pink and purple ink ones! 😅
The clip cap crystal clear never goes out of style.
I like those sligthly foggy gray ones, I remember fitting a cheat sheet in them for any tests that I had. Worked everytime, haven't been caught even once.
If it ain't broken, don't let marketing in the room!
I worked for the canadian gov't. This is soooo accurate to my experience.