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Everybody’s talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s now more than ten-year-old secret child with a longtime household staffer. The questions that typically come up are how he kept it a secret for so long and what this will do to the Arnold brand and business prospects. No one seems to bring up the housekeepers. Privy to secrets, to valued possessions and to private moments, they are often poorly paid, work long, unregulated hours and have no professional redress. The employer-employee power imbalance is extreme. Now, while some may snigger at Schwarzenegger, others are eying their housekeepers with perhaps just a touch more suspicion and/or even lust. There is no doubt to this student of brand marketing what this means. In a percentage of those households, the ones where the previous equilibrium was already precarious — paranoid households, lustful households — things are likely to happen as a direct result of this.

We at DIGO think it’s a shame that the brand “Housekeeper” should be further tarnished by the actions of two people in Brentwood. So, along with tap water, and the off button, we are adding “Housekeeper” to our list of adopted, formerly unsung brands. Take that, Arnold!