The corporate quest to make better toilet paper
'Do you realize that toilet paper has not changed in my lifetime?' the character George Costanza said in an episode of 'Seinfeld.' '… And in 10,000 years, it will still be exactly the same, because really, what else can they do?'
Costanza was sort of correct. Everyone has heard of toilet paper, and pretty much anyone who is going to use it already does. Aside from the very welcome 'splinter-free' promise made by manufacturers in the 1930s, the basic premise has remained pretty steady since the 1890s. But that doesn't mean there haven't been changes. Manufacturers pour plenty of time, money and scientific rigor into a product that most people use without thinking.
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