DENVER – One can never underestimate the cynical desperation for a company to come up a Father’s Day promotion.
Shinesty, the underwear maker, is encouraging men to get a vasectomy as a special “severance package.” The company is giving away five vasectomies at $1,000 each, and hoping that its product might give men’s jewels some “post-surgery pampering.”
The promotion for Ball Hammock underwear hopes to be “celebrating dads a bit differently this Father’s Day by ending their chance at fatherhood once and for all.”
No, this is not a Babylon Bee story.
The company’s CEO, Chris White, said in a release that “In addition to cold hard cash to help with the swelling, we’re also giving the winning dads pairs of Ball Hammock Pouch Underwear for some post-surgery pampering.”
The promo may work for a few June sales and social media clicks.
But in a climate of plunging birthrates, cutting off the potential for future customers may not be on trend. The societal danger of declining birthrates and fertility is popular topic with podcaster Joe Rogan and other influencers of Millennial and Get Z. It is also a theme of Elon Musk, who talks about it, and his children, in many interviews.
In the past, a company might run an ad showing fathers and sons, and maybe offer some in-store displays. And most families might think dad would perhaps appreciate a nice bottle of Scotch, a tie, or a new golf shirt.
Not so fast.
“If you’re a dad whose family is complete,” the underwear company says, “we wanna help send your boys off into the sunset — metaphorically, of course.”
In this case, the company said it was “looking to make a ‘vas deferens’ in their lives.”
