It used to be that toilet-themed products - potties that "sing" when used, books like Everyone Poops - were the domain of toddlers and their hapless parents. But there has been a recent explosion of gear and concepts aimed at enhancing our trips to the loo.
There's Isis, pictured, an $83,000 Swarovski crystal-encrusted toilet named after an Egyptian goddess (the creation of "bathroom couture" designer Jemal Wright), a line of stationery, T-shirts and underwear for men and women by the Swedish brand Pee&Poo, emblazoned with the label's respective "characters", and the world's first "pelvis fitness spa", opened by a gynaecologist in New York.
Not to mention Poo-Pourri, a toilet spray made from essential oils that traps bad odours and, according to the Kansas City Star , "makes your business smell like Froot Loops".
So what's behind the trend? Could we be experiencing a post-Hurricane Katrina appreciation of the basic human necessities that were denied its victims? Or is this just another shameless capitalist conceit; this generation's soap-on-a-rope?
The diverse range of media outlets to have publicised Poo-Pourri helps shed some light on the issue.
Featured on www.perpetualkid-blog.com ("Entertain your inner child"), coolmompicks.com ("The $9.95 marriage saver") and in Harper's Bazaar ("A coup for the loo"), the spray appears to have become a sort of everyproduct, tapping into the needs of not only the emotionally stunted, but Prada-lovers and those under domestic siege, too.
Co-founder Suzy Batiz admits that products such as hers aren't new - "my manufacturer has been in the fragrance [industry] for over three generations and he showed me products from the 1950s and even earlier that were extremely similar" - but rather there's greater "receptivity" to them now.
"We are more open to addressing and talking about [bathroom odour], which has led to more products entering the space," she says.
Certainly, the loo has enjoyed, of late, celebrity attachment that other taboo appliances can only dream of.
In June, Sydney Theatre Company's artistic directors, Cate Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton, wrote to subscribers asking them to donate funds to upgrade the toilets for The Wharf Theatre. "[They] have been inadequately coping with the needs of our patrons, particularly at peak times such as interval," they pleaded.
Last month, Britain's Daily Mail chirped about pop star Lily Allen dumping a commode outside her residence: "Lily Allen goes potty as she spring-cleans her London home."
So will Australians soon be spending their hard-earned cash on a flashier trip to the loo? Early indications aren't promising, if murmurings about the STC's toilet fund-raising push are anything to go by. As Troy Dodds, managing editor of Aussietheatre.com, posted shortly after the letter drop: "It might just be cheaper to hold it in until you get home."
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