HOME / moneybox: Commentary about business and finance.

Triumph of Innovation: The Cube-Shaped Watermelon

By Rob WalkerPosted Wednesday, June 20, 2001, at 11:30 PM ET

"In Japan, the foot can split wood," began an unforgettable advertisement from my childhood. "But it can't split a watermelon!" At this point in the commercial for Ginsu knives, a guy kicked a watermelon. Which was shaped … like a watermelon.

RSS

This has been on my mind since last Friday, when I came across a link to this CNN story on what seems like a good early contender for this year's most questionable innovation: watermelon in the shape of a cube. (Last year's most questionable innovation, according to this column, was the Cuecat; it's a sign of something that the high-tech world has drastically slowed its pace of potential entries for 2001.)

You'll be relieved to know that these items are apparently not the result of a genetic mutation. Farmers just grow them in glass cases that mold their shape. The point, according to CNN, is to save refrigerator space. The cube-shaped melons cost $82. While the serious issues surrounding genetically modified food don't apply here, the cube melon is freaky and disturbing nonetheless. It is for this reason, I hope, that they're beginning to get a monkey-man level of attention, including a segment on the Daily Show last night. In any case, it's time for a new Ginsu ad.

Suggestions for additional Triumphs of Innovation that deserve special recognition are welcome at the e-mail address below.

E-MAIL

RECOMMEND... Get Slate RSS Feeds

Rob Walker writes the Ad Report Card for Slate.

COMMENTS

Reader Comments From The Fray:

[Notes from the Fray Editor: The main question bothering readers was "why does it cost so much?", and Playa4Life set out the issues nicely. Arled's post needs to be read in full to find out what else the Japanese put into square boxes. One of the answers may surprise you.]

First off--would someone please report the price of regular watermelons in Japan? If a regular shaped melon is $80 then a cubic melon for $82 looks like an unbeatable bargain to me--except for the additional trouble consumers must go through to get pieces in the traditional wedge shape.

If Japanese watermelon prices are anything like U.S. watermelon prices, Playa4life has a suggestion worth of Hints4Heloise: to save space in the fridge cut up your melon and store in Tupperware.

--Playa4life

(To reply, click here.)

Innovation my ass! When I was a kid in central Missouri in the late 1940's my uncle showed me how to grow cube-shaped watermelon!

--Jane Jean-Jacques

(To reply, click here.)

I begin to wonder if it is possible that an entire nation can possibly suffer from obsessive-compulsive behavior, or at the very least have some sort of psycho-sociological issues regarding boxes and shapes. Japan appears to be one of them… Is there some need to keep messy things in neat little boxes in Japan? I don't know, but I find it very interesting, even satisfying. I am a frequent visitor to my local Japanese stationery store, and I spend a fortune on pens, paper, organizational implements and other things that satisfy the obsessive-compulsive need to be tidy and efficient.

--Arled

(To reply, or to read this post in full click here.)

(6/22)

What did you think of this article?

Join The Fray: Our Reader Discussion Forum

POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES