Everything about the new startup ManServants looks like a promo from the latest J Lo or Lady Gaga video, but its founders — two San Francisco women who work in advertising — say it’s not a stunt. The service, which launches September 1 in S.F., offers women (and maybe men, though it’s not clear) a way to rent a custom-made male companion for almost anything she wants, aside from sex and stripping. Watch ManServants’ over-the-top commercial above.
“Everyone who watches it [the video] thinks it’s a parody,” co-founder Dalal Khajah tells Mashable. “Even the name of the company sounds like a joke. But it’s not.”
Khajah insists it's “completely PG” and was conceptualized as an alternative to hiring male strippers for a bachelorette party. Instead, ManServants provides “a gentleman host that knows how to charm the ladies” and "wait on you hand and foot," according to its website. His duties could include pouring champagne, taking Instagram photos, feeding grapes, and lighting cigarettes (wait, what year is it?). But really, in 2014, is the new face of feminism hiring a man to fulfill our every wish, to the tune of at least $80/hr or $300/day (what the site says men get paid)?
ManServants has been in beta testing for months and, so far, early clients have had the men act as a personal bodyguard, serve food and sing numbers from The Little Mermaid (songs cost extra), and give marital advice. The client can even give her man servant a new name, if she wishes, and the website suggests some for them: “Garçon, Bartholomew, and Ryan Gosling.”
The service is currently recruiting “bartenders, chefs, photographers, DJs, actors, models, musicians, and hot pool boy types” for its dossier and you can sign up here, if you dare.
[Mashable]