June 2007
Ads say real men don’t eat tofu
'I WILL EAT THIS MEAT' So sang a man in an add for Burger King's Texas Double Whopper. On its Web site, BK uses male construction-worker figures
to sell its 1,000-calorie Quadruple Stacker.
Call them “manvertisements”: ads suggesting that men shun healthful foods--or that men must have meat, and lots of it.
In a Hungry Man ad seen on TV at press time, a self-professed “hungry man” says, “Basically, I’m a bottomless pit” as he eyes
a 1-pound fried-chicken dinner. A trio of additional ads airing within the past year or so have had a similar theme. In an
ad for Burger King’s Texas Double Whopper, men marched to a parody of the song “I Am Woman,” singing, “Wave tofu bye-bye;
now it’s to Whopper beef I reach.” A commercial for T.G.I. Friday’s featured men ordering “Beef!” “Ribs!” and poking fun at
a guy who praised a vegetable medley. In a Hummer H3 spot, a tofu-buying man in a grocery line, shamed by a meat-buyer behind
him, bought a Hummer. The tagline: “Restore your manhood” (later changed to “Restore the balance,” according to a rep).
Bob Garfield, columnist for the trade publication Advertising Age, says such ads signal a backlash against healthful-eating
messages--and you’re likely to see more of their ilk. “There is a mini-trend afoot of portraying men trying to reclaim their
instinctive sense of right and wrong,” Garfield told us. Against that backdrop, he added, “a Double Whopper becomes a badge
of masculinity regained.”
Not everyone is pleased by this development. In December 2006, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an organization
of doctors and dietitians, compared the BK, Friday’s, and Hummer ads to “daring men to smoke or abuse alcohol.”
Hummer’s marketing director, Megan Stooke, countered that the ad was never intended to encourage diet choices. “We feel comfortable
that consumers will not make diet choices based on seeing a 30-second humorous automotive commercial,” she said. Burger King
and T.G.I. Friday’s declined to comment on the criticism.
CR’s take. Whether you see manly-man ads as fun or insidious, consider this: 71 percent of American men are overweight, nearly 30 percent
are obese, and 38 percent already have some type of cardiovascular disease. All good reason to save mega-meat for special
occasions--and reach for a head of broccoli.
