Your Husband: Slightly Dumber Than a Dog

Comedian Sarah Haskins is back with another Target Women video at Current TV that skewers gender-based advertising clichés—this time it's the Doofy Husband. "Being a woman isn't easy," she says in a mock serious tone. "We work, we take care of the house, we raise children, and we do it all without a shred of help from those lumbering man-beasts known as husbands."

Cue a montage of hapless husbands: one man struggles to fry an egg; another uses a blender without first putting the cover on; yet another can't figure out how to activate the automatic air freshener (Hint: There's a button on its base).

"Makes me kind of sad," she continues. "I mean, remember what he was like in commercials before he was a husband? Just a fun single dude, driving his awesome car or motorcycle, serving beer to babes, tailgating with his bros and dancing up a storm. He was so cool. Then he met you and got married—now he's slightly dumber than a dog."

Among her other examples of the Doofy Husband:

A man who frantically checks the calendar, believing he must have forgotten a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary, when his wife brings home steak for dinner.
An apparent simpleton who wreaks havoc on his lawn by using the "wrong" weed killer without realizing the product also kills grass.

Your Marketing Inspiration is to consider what the cartoonish portrayal of inept husbands might actually say to an ad's target audience—wives. Because one female commenter at the Current TV post believes the true takeaway of such commercials is this: "[M]en are just regular happy-go-lucky guys and women are terrible and ruin all the fun."

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