Sunday, January 13, 2008

Stunning News: Tasers Now a Fashion Staple

A couple of months ago we noted the burgeoning popularity of Taser parties being held out in Arizona.

Well, now comes news that Tasers have become a fashion accessory staple.
Will stylish women soon be literally as well as figuratively stunning? If the folks at Taser have their way, fashionistas will soon be stopping muggers in their tracks and watching the bandits collapse bonelessly at their well-shod feet - thanks to a 50,000 volt stun gun.

Last week the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas featured a new chick device from Taser that hopes to be the Lady Remington of the pain compliance industry. You may remember Taser from such scandals as the long-running Bernard Kerik Follies of 2004 to two-thousand-whenever (Bernie sold $6.2 million worth of stock options the company gave him while he was promoting their product) and from alarmed reports by groups such as Amnesty International (which has linked the Taser to 280 deaths, although in Amnesty's typically frustrating way, it did not tally up how many of the victims deserved it).

Taser rolled out its new weapon for femmes fatales, the C2, which puts high voltage into a holster containing a one gigabyte MP3 player with darling little white earbuds. “Fashion with a bite," says Taser. Wags instantly dubbed it the “iTase," though we'll have to wait to see if C2 adds texting capabilities to turn it into a BlastBerry. Can a promotional deal with Jolt Cola be far behind?

Taser boasts that the C2 has enough juice in its lithium battery to deliver up to 50 shocks, although you probably won't need it that many times unless you live in Detroit.

The C2, which is illegal for civilian use in New York and New Jersey, but legal in California, comes in not only “red-hot red" and “fashion pink" colors but also in a leopard-skin model, because drag queens need personal protection too. (Each time it fires, it also releases a burst of confetti with a serial number traceable to the weapon on each piece, to increase both accountability and fabulousness.) Will such cutesy-wootsyness be enough to convince trendy women? Will the next cliché of headline writers be “The Devil Wears Taser"?
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