Michaela sent in two Australian ads for Selleys sealants. Both target men and caution them about the consequences of neglecting home maintenance projects:
So men who fail to do the type of housework that is consistent with ideals of masculinity — fixing things — face threats to other areas of masculinity as well, since, of course, women (who cannot, themselves, caulk a shower, obviously) will be unable to resist a hot dude who can (and will) fix stuff, thus proving himself to be the ideal man. Who doesn’t love emasculation as a marketing tool?
Comments 31
missdisco — January 5, 2011
Man: (gets a dusty toolbox out) I'll just do the shower
Woman: Don't bother, it's done
Man: I'll get onto the skirt/
Woman: Skirting board, yep all done
Man: Oh... what about Thomas's/
Woman: It's all done
Woman: Speed Seal 3 in 1 is easy to use and dries in two hours... so you can do it yourself.
Man: I'll go make some tea then.
God, I wish Mad Men was on!
Dr. Ivo Fixbotnik — January 5, 2011
I KNOW HOW USE FOR FIX AND TOOLS. LIST HERE IS.
A. NAILS. NAILS MAKE GO IN WALL. HIT WITH HEAD, YES. SHARP END POKE HURT BRAIN. APPLY FOR USE FLAT PART.
2. USE FREON FOR DEODORANT. ALSO IS GOOD FOR ELECTRICITY NOT WORK TO FIXING.
C. CAT FOR MOP USE ON SPILL. NO ONE FINDS OUT, CAT CAN NO SPEAKING.
3. SCREEN DOOR FOR PLUMBING. USE HAMMER WITH FOR INSTANT.
ELEVEN. REFRIGERATOR ON CEILING WORK GREAT. STAPLES, ATTACH TO KEEP.
B. FIRE TO BE ON PILLOWS FOR GREAT SOFT.
I WILL TEACH! GREAT ADVICES TO YOU I WILL SEND FOR. I AM KNOW HOW USE TO FIX TOOLS FOR BEING MALE I DO. GIVE ME POWER DRILL!!
cy — January 5, 2011
and, of course, the man is at work during the day, while the woman stays home (but is still unable to do the repairs herself).
K. E. — January 5, 2011
Am I the only one thinking the slogan has a double meaning of "Bang your wife before someone bangs her for you"? I might be reading into it too much but if that's true, there's a whole wonderful mess of lack of agency and all sorts of other wonderful fail.
Nick — January 5, 2011
I apparently fail as a man, then. Luckily, my wife loves home repairs and is really good at them. (Case in point, the toilet she replaced last week.)
I do make excellent tea, though.
Jade — January 5, 2011
Those commercials insult everyone. UGH.
Chlorine — January 5, 2011
I really hate anything that assumes men OR women are just HELPLESS to keep themselves from cheating on their spouse (in a presumably monogamous relationship). e_e
Michaela — January 5, 2011
Well I was super excited to see a lot of people as gobsmacked as me. When I first saw it my partner and I just looked at each other going 'did they really try that?!!!'
I think, like K.E. said, there is definitely a double entendre with the 'do it yourself tag' and I think everyone has done a good job deconstructed how loathesome these ads are.
Thanks for reaffirming my faith in an intelligent humanity.
Liz — January 5, 2011
Just goes to show you missed the point of Aussie humour.We know how to laugh at ourselves and most women know how to use a caulking gun.Don't take it too seriously, we don't!
Melanie — January 6, 2011
Of course the handy man is more virile than the husband. He has a phallic caulking gun that can squirt into accomodating spaces. Eesh.
Pauline — January 7, 2011
I'm Australian and it took about 3 watches of one of those ads and having my mum actually stop and rewind tivo to play it again for me to actually get the message.
I guess when I first saw it I just refused to see the obvious sexist message and was trying to look for something more intelligent instead.
But no, now I see it here on SocImages, I know it's as dumb as my brain refused to believe.
I think it was the fact that they were showing how simple it is to use the sealing stuff, so I was trying to figure out why the woman wasn't just doing it herself. And then the message at the end, I thought was actually directed to women as a 'do you really want someone strange in your house doing this when you could do it yourself?'. But as I said, I was trying to give it an intelligent message when it clearly doesn't have one. Which in itself just goes to show how ineffective the ad actually is.
T — January 7, 2011
I'm amazed by so many of the comments above...
Baxter — January 7, 2011
did they seriously go there? really? did they just do what i think they did?
Rita — February 11, 2011
The line "while you're at work" directed at the husband paired with the woman being at home also assumes that men work all day and women stay home taking care of the house and... making tea.
Sarah Smith — February 24, 2011
I don't think so the ad is very appealing. I agree that there are women that hate to do those jobs and I am one of it.
Smith — December 21, 2022
Some men do not always have enough free time to do repairs. They can turn to a company that provides such services. The main thing is that it should be a reliable company.
Murray Gold — December 21, 2022
We recently moved to Los Angeles. However, the house we moved into needs repairs. Especially the water system. We were recommended to read about Plumber in LA. What did you think of it? We found this information quite interesting. They say the work is done fairly well and on time. That's important to us.