Review: Man Medals

Reviewer: Jackie Snider

Raise you hand if you are married to a man. Actually, raise your hand if you even know a man. When they complete a task, any task, they want recognition. I believe if they had the option of a parade for remembering to rinse their plates off, they would take it. The point is, a simple “Good job, sweetie” isn’t enough for them. Now it doesn’t have to be! 

Man Medals are sure to put a pride-filled smile on the deserving man’s face in your life. There is six original Man Medals in all. You can say ‘job well done’ for putting the toilet seat down, taking out the trash, running the vacuum, picking up his dirty clothes, asking for directions, and putting on a new roll of toilet paper. 

This company is created by a man named Jim O’Brien. The story goes just as you would assume. Whenever he did a perfectly reasonably chore, he would announce his accomplishments for all to hear. It became a running shtick for his wife to ask ‘do you want a medal?’ One day Jim decided that actually sounded quite appropriate. Thus, Man Medals was born. 

Man Medals was featured on ABC’s Shark Tank in late September. Unfortunately the Sharks were not interested in them because of the small amount of sales that were currently under their belt. I firmly believe that was their loss! In late October Man Medals gained a new partner in the form of actor/comedian Kevin Brown AKA Dot Com! 

 

Upon receiving the six original Man Medals I decided I would not tell my husband about them. I waited until he earned one, and was going to leave him guessing as to what the remaining ones were for. The first one he earned was ‘I took the garbage out’. While he was outside putting it in the can, I placed his medal on his chair. When he came in, he picked it up and got a great laugh! While inspecting his new trophy, he read the back, discovering the other five to collect. 

At first I was annoyed that it foiled my plans at surprising him and seeing which he actually managed to earn naturally throughout the course of this review. Then, I realized something amazing! Knowing that there were more to earn, seemed to light a competitive fire under him and he was trying to earn then all! 

Within the next few days he quickly earned the ‘I put the toilet paper roll on’ (That’s never really been an issue. However, he does put it on backwards which should disqualify him) He also earned the ‘I put the toilet seat down’ medal right away. There was one point that I thought he was about to earn ‘I ran the vacuum cleaner’ medal, but he was actually just moving it out of his way. By the end of the week his did earn the vacuum medal along with the ‘I picked up my dirty clothes’ medal. 

 

Throughout the week the only one he did not obtain was the ‘I asked for directions’ medal. He says that every device we own has a GPS so he’ll never have to ask someone! 

For the most part, as he earned them, they went on a display shelf. When I asked why he doesn’t wear them, he says the backing pokes him. (When is the ‘I was not whiny today’ medal arriving?) 

After receiving the full set (minus ‘I asked for directions’) he did put them all on and wore them all day. 

He had many suggestions from a recipient’s point of view. He wishes that the medals were available in a few different mediums. He isn’t big on the pins, but if they were Olympic medal style, worn around the neck, that would have been an even bigger ego boost. 

Another idea is for them to be in the style of coins. My husband is military and coins are big form of pride among them. The Man Medals are currently available as pins, as seen here, and also as fridge magnets. 

I think these medals were a great source of comedy in my house over the last few weeks and when more styles come out, I will be among the first to purchase! They are such great fun, and really do add a little something to the clearly needed ‘thank you’ to the men in your life. 

I also wanted to talk about another medal that Man Medals has to offer. I did not have one sent to me, however I still think it should be highlighted.
 

I am very much on the fence about this product, to be honest. As previously mentioned, we are a military family. I grew up with a father that was 21 years Air Force, and I’m married to a man in his early year in the U.S Army. I showed this to my husband and a few others to get multiple opinions. 

Everyone was in agreement that this medal is slightly insulting in a few ways. My standpoint is that I don’t care for the wording. “Coming Home to be a Daddy’ sound to me that the man was not considering himself a Daddy while out of the home, serving his country. I don’t for a second believe that is the actual sentiment behind it, but I think it needs rephrasing. ‘Came home to be with family’ I think is a better way to convey the meant message. 

However the actual service members, my husband included, didn’t like the message in general. They didn’t like the idea of being rewarded for coming home. It does not follow the lines of the original six medals of being thanked for tasks they did not get pleasure out of. The way one soldier put it was “why not give a medal for devouring a delicious steak, then.” 

In my opinion, the medal would go over much better for the target audience if it read “Served my country with pride” or something along those lines. 

One praise I can sing for these military themed medals is the fact that 10% of the sales of them go to the Fallen and Wounded Soldiers Fund of Michigan. 

This company has amazing potential to be a novelty staple in many homes. I can definitely see this sold in stores such as Spencer’s Gifts or Hot topic. 

There is a ton of other congratulatory topics that need to be included! Here are some that some friends and family and I came up with:

• I loaded the dishwasher. 
• I made it through a meal without touching my phone. 
• I didn’t play video games today. 
• I noticed my wife’s haircut without prompting. 
• I gave the kid a bath. 
• I cleaned up the dog poop. 
• I made dinner. 
• I gave up the remote. 

What fun Man Medals would you love to see? 

Man Medals on Facebook
Man Medals Website

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This post was originally posted at WAHM Review and is being cross posted here by the original author.  I received no monetary compensation for this review, however I was provided with the product for free for purposes of review.  All opinions are my own. Click here see our full disclosure policy.