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Toronto-Made ‘Smells Like My Penis’ Candle Highlights Gender Pay Gap

Oh 2020, you've done it again.
The "This Smells Like My Penis" candle produced by TAXI.
TAXI
The "This Smells Like My Penis" candle produced by TAXI.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s “This Candle Smells Like My Vagina,” a $75 candle sold through her “lifestyle brand,” Goop, is the perfect thing for the Internet hoard to rally against.

Why is it $75?! Why do we need something that claims to smell like Gwyneth Paltrow’s taco but actually just smells like citrus and bergamot? Who’s buying it? Does Gwyneth have a whole room of her house that’s just these candles?

Well, now there’s a “This Smells Like My Penis” candle, created by Toronto ad agency, TAXI, because we live in a hell world and this is what we deserve. The candle is visually identical to Paltrow’s candle, except it costs $25 more. And in a twist likely no one saw coming when they heard the phrase “penis candle,” it’s actually for a good cause.

“One of the teams came up with this great idea to make a ‘This Smells Like My Penis’ candle to highlight Canada’s gender pay gap,” TAXI executive creative director Alexis Bronstorph told HuffPost Canada.

WATCH: Gwyneth Paltrow is standing in a vagina and everyone has questions. Story continues below.

She said the difference in cost between their candle and Paltrow’s is meant to draw attention to the continuing pay discrepancy between men and women working across industries in Canada. According to 2019 data from Statistics Canada, full-time working women make 87 cents on average for every dollar men make. The gap is wider for women who are Indigenous, living with a disability, racialized or recent immigrants.

All of the proceeds from sales of the $100 penis candle will go to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, which funds poverty reduction, empowerment and engage programs for women across Canada.

“Burn this candle for the scent of women getting paid 75 cents on the dollar,” the candle’s label reads.

So yes, the penis candle is feminist. Oh, 2020, you’ve done it again. And don’t worry — it doesn’t actually smell like, well, you know.

“We actually didn’t want to give it a scent, but rather point out how the functionality of a candle like this is no different however it smells, as a reminder of how ridiculous the wage gap is in today’s day and age,” she said.

Thank goodness. No one needs an actual penis-scented candle.

The back of the "This Smells Like My Penis" candle.
TAXI
The back of the "This Smells Like My Penis" candle.

Bronstorph said you can order your very own “This Smells Like My Penis” candle from smellslikemypeniscandle.com, a domain that some tech person somewhere had to actually approve (Shocking it wasn’t already taken, really).

And apparently, just like Paltrow’s vagina candle, a lot of people out there want penis candles. Bronstorph says they plan to produce more to keep up with demand from pre-orders.

“As long as people want them, we will keep sending them,” she said. “The more we can give to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, the better.”

Feminist penis candles! What a world.

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