My daughter-in-law handed me some pink duct tape and asked me to help her fasten it to some audio leads for her electric guitar. I took the sticky wrap and assisted as requested until I suddenly screwed up my face, shook my head from side to side, and focused on the pink adhesive in hand.
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s pink duct tape,” she said. I raised my eyebrows, made a frown, and grimaced shrugging my shoulders.
I’m sorry, but I had never seen pink duct tape. Why would anyone want to use a bright pink tape on an air conditioning duct? Duct tape is supposed to be battleship grey, right? Or perhaps ductwork grey…maybe black…but certainly not shocking pink! Why would any man go into a hardware store and ask for pink duct tape? I was confused.
I decided to make duct tape a personal research project. I needed to find out why would the manufacturers of such a testosterone-oriented product (undoubtedly one of the most important home improvement products of the 20th Century) decide to manufacture and market a pastel impressionist color for an item that is used to repair metal air conditioning ductwork, or for any number of home repair projects normally done in the garage? Was this color part of a feminist conspiracy to establish political correctness in the home improvement industry or to blatantly pander to female do-it-yourselfers?
Where to get the answer? The internet of course. First of all, I needed to figure out what term to enter into the Google search box. Was it “duct” or “duck” tape? The roll handed to me by my daughter-in-law was manufactured as Duck Tape® brand tape with a cute water fowl logo and its own web site. Was this cutesy logo the marketing brainchild of some Madison Avenue advertising executive? Do shiny suit account representatives in Manhattan even know about duct tape?
“Duct” tape was apparently invented during World War II and had its original uses to repair ammunition cases, jeeps, firearms, and aircraft. Its major advantages were being water resistant, weather resistant, strong, flexible, oil & grease resistant, and with an amazing capacity to stick to virtually any clean surface. One story has it that it was originally called “Duck” tape during the war because it was created using cotton duck cloth fabric as the basis and applying layers of polyethylene or rubber. Specialized versions have been developed over the years to support electricians in the entertainment industry [my daughter-in-law apparently does not know that these varieties are black and not pink] and to repair fiberglass racing car bodies. OK here I can see the development of a variety colors especially if you think about auto body repairs on the race track. I can picture the multi-colored formula racing cars stopping into the pits where a crew of burley mechanics and metalsmiths patch up the odd hole picked up while racing hundreds of miles per hour down the tract. Ah, the smell of burning rubber and gasoline!
Duct tape has been used to repair bear-damaged aircraft and make them airworthy for at least one more flight and most notably to repair more than one U.S. space craft on lunar missions. Multiple books have been published on the creative uses of duct tape and there are apparently contests for original duct tape prom dresses. There are also rumors that NASA had instructions to use duct tape to restrain any unruly astronauts during space flight.
Of interest is that “duct” tape is generally not certified to repair commercial ductwork since it is not fire resistant. There is also no agreement on the original spelling since it is argued that the water resistant property (similar to water rolling off a duck’s back) meant the real original term was “duck” tape.
Other than the clothing contests, most of this information sounded fairly manly to me and so I still could not fathom why someone would manufacture and sell pink duct tape? Duct tape is clearly in the domain of men and men that get their hands dirty doing things in a garage or a barn or other places that men go to fix things. I clearly needed some field research since the only duct tape in my garage was the traditional battleship grey. I set off on my quest for the answer.
Home Depot sells a variety of colors of adhesive tape. I guess I don’t get out much since I was surprised to discover blue and also green painters tape; tan RhinoGrip double-sided adhesive tape; and black pipe wrap tape. Nashua brand markets red stucco tape and some black, white, and transparent duct tape. But the bulk of the “duct” tape sold by Gorilla, 3M, or Scotch Brands was either grey or silver in color.
When I asked an employee at Lowes’, he said that he never heard of pink duct tape and could not understand why any real man would want to buy it. I grunted like Tim “The Toolman” Taylor and walked out into the parking lot where I was met by the throaty sounds and acrid smells of diesel engines and manual truck transmissions. No “sissy” tape at Lowe’s or Home Depot.
But as I drove home, I still did not know where you get pink duct tape. So when I got home, I texted my daughter-in-law and asked where she bought her roll. She replied “Target.” Who the hell goes to Target to buy duct tape?
Not wanting to get back into the car again, I returned my search to the internet. By now, I have learned that Amazon.com sells virtually everything, I checked out their web site next. I was dumbfounded. You can buy duct tape manufactured by a variety of companies in the following cornucopia of colors: aqua, beige, blaze orange, burgundy, cha cha cherry, cookie dough, deep blue ocean, electric blue, flamingo pink, florescent green, florescent orange, florescent pink, funky flamingo, green clover, island lime, merlot mania, midnight madness, mud puddle, neon green, neon pink, olive drab, purple, purple duchess, silver coin, sunburst yellow, tranquil teal, winking white, and woodland forest green. Is there really a market for all of these colors? Are there more duct tape colors than colors of lipstick? What in the world would a man do with island lime duct tape and how could he look a hardware store clerk in the eye and actually ask for this color? Tranquil teal the same. At least olive drab could be explained as necessary to repair some camping equipment.
I assumed that the tape my daughter-in-law uses is neon pink and learned that Amazon.com sells this color in six packs. There is that much demand for pink duct tape that it is sold in six packs? Amazon.com also sells a florescent pink industrial duct tape by Uline.
I kept looking at the Amazon.com web site and learned that you can buy duct tape with the following patterns: camouflage, cosmic tie dye, digital camouflage, flames, hounds tooth, leopard, paisley, polka dot, spotted leopard, tie dye, wicker, wood print, and zebra. Really? Why? OK, maybe men would use the camouflage pattern to fix a hunting blind.
And you can purchase duct tape with the logos from 23 universities. OK, I can see merit for the wicker and wood print designs and perhaps the olive drab color. I can also see the value in college logo patterns if school pranks are still required like they were when I was a freshman. But do we really need hounds tooth and paisley?
I pondered: how much time has been devoted to determining the market demand for all of these duct tape colors and patterns? Who exactly created this market for colored duct tape or is this overabundance of choice another example of capitalist free enterprise creating markets by saturating the public with a product that they did not know that they needed? Is there some government agency or industrial manufacturing group that regulates or at least oversees duct tape colors and patterns? Is the funky flamingo color consistent across manufacturers?
Are there duct tape trade shows where the annual patterns are paraded like the latest fashions from Paris? I tried to visualize an adhesive convention with large displays of the latest colors and patterns shown on massive electronic displays with tents and tables with samples. Where would one hold a duct tape trade show? Fire Island? The Detroit suburb that is the home of Tim “The Toolman” Taylor? Would color coded duct tape hold matching color coded miniature umbrellas on the sides of frothy tall drinks made with fruits and foam? Clearly there was more to research. I continued my quest.
Since most of the unusual designs and colors originate from Duck Tape® Brand, I decided to look at their web site to see if I could get some more answers to why we had access to so many unusual colors and so many patterns? The Duck Tape® products pages lead to links with displays of some eleven patterns and seventeen colors currently being sold…but interestingly, not pink. There are instructions on how to use your university Duck Tape® to make logo specific flags, pennants, megaphones, and T-shirts. There are instructions on how to create Duck Tape® luggage and wallets, picture frames, and Halloween costumes.
There is a Duck Tape Club™ where you can choose your very own avatar and report on ducktivities. You can Ask the Duck® and make Duck® Tweets. Helpful links take you to the Duck Tape® Facebook page and videos on You Tube. The Duck Tape® Facebook page boasts 5,316,999 “likes” [as of March 6, 2013]. That is over three times as many “likes” than recorded for the White House. The posts by fans are hilarious;
“Please check out my page for items like this lady bug hair clip and many more cute accessories made from duck tape.”
“We can use some of that duct tape for all the stuff that fell off the walls during the earthquake.”
There are thousands of photos including the 2011 Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest Winners!
I finally begin to see what is going on: the various colors and patterns are used to create innovative crafts or silly things to wear or display. Duck Tape® is not designed for use as an industrial or home improvement product.
Then I finally see what I have been searching for. “Duck® Brand Goes Pink.” The company indeed offers pink Duck Tape® and will donate a portion of the proceeds to support the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are other pink products in their program. I get it. Pink in support of breast cancer research. Not because it is needed to mend pink ductwork, but because it is part of a general trend in the U.S. to label backing for such research as “pink.” I can support this worthy cause. I have nothing against helping women beat breast cancer and have donated to such causes. It just never dawned on me that there would be a relationship between pink duct tape and support for breast cancer research.
So finally I have my answer. If you want duct tape to perform traditional home improvement or industrial type jobs associated with heating, ventilating, or air conditioning ductwork, then you go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and you get grey or perhaps white, black, or transparent tape. This burly duct tape is the sticky stuff that is hard to get off but wonderful for mending and creating legends about how duct tape can fix anything that does not need to be lubricated by WD-40.
Pink Duck Tape® or pink duct tape, or for that matter any of the specialty colors and patterns, have only been around for the past 5-6 years and are primarily supported by ardent fans that use the product for crafts. And wrapping the leads on an electric guitar. You buy this product primarily at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Target, or Amazon.com.
I am going to guess that Duck Tape® is creating a market much the same as the greeting cards industry is blamed for creating Grandparent’s Day and perhaps a few other “holidays.” It is merely capitalism run amuck but I do not think we need a federal agency to regulate their activities. Perhaps we should all go out and buy stock in the company that makes Duck Tape® to get in on the front end of a coming wave of Duck Tape® mania.
So I have my daughter-in-law to thank for my brief excursion into the world of duct tape and the discovery of more than I had ever hoped to learn about a normal every day product found in most every home in America. And used to wire audio leads to electric guitars.
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