Last week, Gwyneth Paltrow’s oft-mocked lifestyle retail brand Goop was back in the news with the release of a vagina-scented candle.
The “This smells like my vagina” candle reportedly started as a joke between Paltrow and her perfumer Douglas Little, but became an actual 10.5 oz. product—”made with geranium, citrusy bergamot, and cedar absolutes juxtaposed with Damask rose and ambrette seed”—that sold (and sold out) for $75.
While $75 may seem like a lot for a candle, Toronto creative agency Taxi believes that its “This smells like my penis” candle should cost $100, reflecting Canada’s gender pay gap.
The agency is actually making the candles and will sell them at “SmellsLikeMyPenis.com,” with all proceeds going to the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
“This candle costs 25% more than than its vagina-smelling equivalent,” reads the explainer copy on the site. “On average, women earn 75 cents for every dollar men make. It’s time to burn the gender pay gap.”
“We made a small batch, but based on the response on social media we feel like we are going to make a lot more,” said Alexis Bronstorph, Taxi’s executive creative director. Taxi posted the penis candle to Instagram at about 11 a.m. Tuesday morning.
“It is an unscented candle,” said Bronstorph. “We didn’t want to give it a scent because that’s kind of gross.
“We really want to point out that the functionality of a candle, it’s really no different whether it smells like a man or a woman. And it’s a stark reminder of how ridiculous the wage gap is,” she said. Although some might actually argue the male candle costs more and does less than the female candle.
The idea came from one of the agency’s creative teams last week, said Bronstorph. When everyone was talking about the Goop candle, they thought a more expensive male version would be a great way to illustrate the absurdity of the wage gap.
Bronstorph loved the idea and things moved quickly from there. “When trying to be relevant to culture or timely, it’s important to be as nimble as possible and get it out there.”
*This headline has been corrected to the poor math of the editors.
