This is what happens when you don’t buy your wife a vacuum cleaner for Christmas:

Electrolux, the second-largest maker of domestic appliances, on Monday provided another dire warning about the state of worldwide consumer demand by cutting more than 3,000 jobs while indicating that its operating profit for the fourth quarter could be as much as 60 per cent below last year’s figure.

The Swedish company said that the suddenness of a sharp dip in sales in the last two weeks of November had taken the company by surprise.

There’s a video going around called “Beware Of The Doghouse,” and I haven’t watched the entire thing because it is over four minutes long, but I’ve been told it is a relatively banal and middlebrow piece of social commentary produced by Saatchi and Saatchi for JCPenney on the evils of giving your significant other a household appliance for Christmas:

Pretty sure Electrolux is not appreciating the sentiment right now. But guys – JCPenney jewelry isn’t the way to go either. Go with Patron and dollar thongs. You heard it from me, and LoLo will cosign.