It’s kind of hard to know where to start with this one, but let’s start with the perceived problem: women take their husbands or significant others furniture shopping at Ikea, only to find them zoning out and complaining the whole time. Leave him home? Dump him?

No, pacify him. 

Manzone is Ikea’s own take on the “No Girlz Allowed” clubhouse so many guys used to build when we were six… when we hated girls and thought they were gross. Stocked with foozball, videogames and sports on the television, the Manzone is the perfect thing to occupy your admittedly less-than-stellar catch while you consider what furniture you’d like in your new apartment once you move on. 

The whole thing is pretty odd, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s deliberate satire when they explain the buzzer system at the one minute mark: 

“I understand that there’s a 30 minute time limit, and that the wives are given a buzzer before they go shopping. Is that because they have to remember to come back and actually pick up their husbands?” Interviewer looks at the camera and laughs, as if to clarify that she realizes this is a ludicrous idea and is only joking. 

IKEA spokesperson stares straight ahead and says with a straight face: “Yeah, exactly.” 

-Richard Clark

[via]