For many single women, in an ideal world finding the perfect man might well be as easy as selecting a snack from a vending machine: make a choice, press the button and out it--or he--comes.
For women in Auckland, New Zealand, that fantasy became a reality in October.
Placed on a busy downtown area, the vending machine looked like your basic dispenser of sodas or snacks. The giveaway was the logo on the front and sides of the box: The Man Vending Machine.
And instead of snacks or sodas women were offered these six choices: classic, action, romantic, rich, foreign and Mr. Perfect (a vibrator).
When the woman pressed the button for their choice, the vending machine door popped open and out came a real-life man, ready to go on a date. (The romantic type came with flowers in hand. The vibrator came directly out of the machine, without the flowers.)
The stunt was for Flossie.com, a New Zealand web site that targets women 18-55, and the idea came from its agency, TBWA\Whybin.
The agency's challenge was to come up with a creative way to dramatize Flossie.com’s mantra, "Whatever you need, it’s on us."
"Jessica Neale and Amy Thexton, the two young creatives who devised the concept, arrived at the idea by brainstorming," says Kelly Bennett, managing partner at TBWA\Whybin. She says the idea was the refined by executive creative director Andy Blood, and the result was the world’s first man-vending machine.
The machine was actually an old Coke machine that had been converted for the stunt, and the men who popped out were chosen for the job through auditions the agency held. The agency then filmed the whole thing, capturing women's reactions as the men emerged, and put it up on the web.
"The response was phenomenal," says Bennett. "There was loads of interaction and interest."
She said the stunt picked up plenty of local press coverage as well, and that it helped Flossie.com exceed its goals in terms of web traffic.
