Male Marketing from Mars
In a recent editorial on Just-Food.com, Managing Editor Catherine Sleep takes
issue with Nestlé Rowntree’s sexist marketing tactics. Nestlé’s
Yorkie bar campaign insists its "not for girls" in a bid to encourage
male consumption. Meanwhile, its latest Munchies sponsorship campaign may permanently
cure feminists of their taste for chocolate.
Yorkie has always targeted at men with relatively harmless tongue-in-cheek
advertisements. “Yorkie is definitely the chocolate for the British bloke, and
it’s about time they reclaimed what it is to be a man,” reads the strapline
on the Yorkie web site. Attempting to gain additional male consumers, it handed
out free chocolate samples only to men in UK cities. The strategy, which led
to complaints and even physical attacks, was eventually abandoned.
In mid June, however, Nestlé announced a Munchies-brand sponsorship
deal with the Great Britain Women’s Rugby Team, the ‘Lionesses,’ which questions
taste and gender politics. The brand is supporting the team’s five-week tour
of Australia for the upcoming International Test Series. The shirts the players
will wear as part of the deal are branded not only with the Munchies logo but
also with the arguably inflammatory straplines: ‘Scoff Me, Nibble Me, You want
me, Take me, Munch me, Fancy me.’
Moderator Comment: What do you think of Nestlé
Rowntree’s Yorkie and Munchies marketing tactics? Would they fly here in the
United States?
On behalf of all married males everywhere, secure enough
in their masculinity to admit that they are ‘fraidy scared of their wives, our
profiling of the creators of these campaigns conclude that they are one or more
of the following:
- Older adult males still living with their mothers.
- Recently divorced or otherwise dumped males.
- Gay.
- Self-loathing males that enjoy abuse.
- Stark, raving mad.