It may sound like the title of a bad goth poem, but razorblades and roses are just two elements in Wal-Mart's promotional blitz for Madden 10.
Wal-Mart is going all out for the Madden 10 release, prepping thousands of stores for a midnight release on August 14th, with a couple of exclusive promotions to make sure players don't offend their loved ones too badly in the days following the game's release.
First off, Wal-Mart stores will have a limited edition Gillette Fusion NFL razor for sale with the game, with handles featuring your favorite NFL team. It doesn't specify that this is the Gilette Fusion Gamer, but seeing as that's just the normal Fusion marketed at gamers, it might as well be the same thing.
Then come the roses.
With thousands of men likely to be glued to the game after Friday, Walmart is rolling back the price of a dozen roses to $8 and making them easily available in the Electronics department, so guys, who may need some early forgiveness, can remember their gals who don't want to feel "left out." An easy to send and thoughtful "early apology email" is also available at Walmart.com/madden.
That's extremely thoughtful of them, isn't it? You can even visit the company's Madden micro-site and send a pre-emptive apology email. Extremely cheesy as well, but this is Wal-Mart. It's not as if they could have used my idea of an NFL-licensed marital aid anyway.
Wal-Mart is also offering a $10 online gift certificate to anyone who pre-orders the game online instead of hanging around the store in the middle of the night, but I'm not sure you can call yourself a Madden fan if you aren't physically handing over a method of payment at 12:01am.