MARY HANNIGANhad her hands full trying to find out what happened the missing ball on the Gillette website

UPON INSTRUCTION yesterday we took a look at www.gillettechampions.com, first, as advised, clicking on the Republic of Ireland version of the Gillette website and then on the French.

“Note any difference?” No.

“Spot the ball!” Another look. Okay, on the Irish site in the animated ad there’s Roger Federer holding his tennis racket, Tiger Woods, in happier times, leaning on a golf club, and Thierry Henry twirling a football in his left hand. Seriously.

“Now, go back to the French site.” Right. There’s Roger Federer holding his tennis racket, Tiger Woods, in happier times, leaning on a golf club, and Thierry Henry . . . wait . . . with his left hand in his pocket. Not a ball in sight! “Exactement.”

“There’s no limit to what you can achieve,” says the Gillette slogan, which left us wondering was that a reference to the successful airbrushing out of an ever so slightly embarrassing reminder of, well, you know? Although, we figured it would have made more sense to remove the ball from Thierry’s hand on the Ireland site, just as a mark of respect to the company’s crestfallen razor-wielding Irish clients.

On any of the other regional versions of the site we checked the ball was spottable, in his left hand, although the same ad doesn’t appear on them all. On the United States site, for example, Thierry is relegated to the background, his place alongside Tiger and Roger taken by Derek Jeter, the baseball star. “Thierry who,” was, perhaps, the most common response to their market research in the States.

The press spokesman for Procter Gamble (owners of Gillette) in London assured us that there’s been no funny business at all, at all.

“There have been no recent changes to that website,” he said.

So, the French version wasn’t changed since, well, you know? “There have been no recent changes to that website,” he repeated.

A pure coincidence, then, Thierry, apparently, never handled the ball in Gillette’s France, he always had his left hand in his pocket. Which, when you think about it, is precisely how the referee saw the incident.