When Electrolux came up with the
Silence Amplified, the “most silent vacuum
cleaner ever made,” it decided to do something useful with all that extra
quietness (the machine operates at just 68dB) that it had left in its wake:
Fill it with music. And because today, “music” means “iPod”,
Electrolux
put in an iPod dock and integrated speakers.
At
first, this seems absurd, but why not? Electrolux ran some tests with real,
live people to see how they vacuumed with and without music. The result is
predictable, but still wonderful: vacuuming becomes fun! The subjects in the
video (below) wiggle and dance to the music, burning extra calories, getting
the job done faster and generally having a great time.
Think
you could do this with your regular vacuum? Think again. Just this week I was
hoovering (what the Brits call vacuuming) our cow-skin rug. The Lady wanted to
watch me dance, so of course I put on Queen’s “I Want to Break Free”, the
anthem of housework. Utter failure. The noise drowned out the music, and I
ended up just looking like I couldn’t stand up properly.
