mortierbrigade’s campaigns for Equal Pay Day tend to come from offbeat places. Last year’s was the story of a young man in a relationship with a much older woman. His disappointment on her death highlighted the fact that women’s pensions are 39% lower than men’s in Europe.

This year’s is no less surprising. It’s a quirky montage of men doing the shittiest jobs (literally, in some sequences), set to a song about manly men doing “what a man gotta do”. As in last year’s ad, the film is mesmerising because of its own extraordinary story, but the ad’s surprise – the reveal – comes at the end. This year’s is, Manly men aren’t afraid of shitty jobs…Like the shitty jobs at home.

Jens Mortier, creative director at mortierbrigade, commented, “While it may be over the top, the pay gap is even more over the top.”

The ad was directed by Czar’s Lionel Goldstein and comes from the fact that in Belgium, the main obstacle to pay equality is part-time work. 44% of women who work do some part-time, compared to 11% of men. That part-time work generally also means taking care of the children, the groceries and the household chores as well. In reality, part-time work is spending less time at work to spend more time on tasks at home.

Mortierbrigade proposes that men Share the work and close the gender pay gap. If men did their share of the shitty jobs at home, there would be a more balanced distribution of tasks and money.

The soundtrack, Manly men, was written by Greg Keeler, a poet and professor who agreed to his music being used once he had seen the video.

Here is mortierbrigade’s 2018 Equal Pay Day campaign;

mortierbrigade presents a delightfully unusual reason to close the wage gap