First he was called a nineties man and asked to do everything short of wear nail varnish to express his sensitive, feminine side, then he was labelled a metrosexual and told to get the nail varnish out, on second thoughts, because Becks was sporting it. Being a man, once as
straightforward as turning on the barbecue and flipping a few steaks, has grown way more complicated.
According to recent research from a number of organisations, metrosexuality may be a sociological trend on its way out—74% of respondents in Leo Burnett’s ‘Man Study’ said images of men in advertising were out of date—but the catchphrase was coined for a good reason. At the other extreme, the reactionary, traditionalist ‘retros’ identified in the global ‘Man Study’ are also alive and well. In fact, Australia is in a unique position with regard to this latter group.
When asked to name the most retro or blokey nations, Leo Burnett’s respondents generally picked their own country followed by Australia. “Perhaps because of the Russell Crowes and Crocodile Dundees and overtly stereotypical guys, we’re in a different market here,” Leo Burnett strategy planner, Justin Graham, says.
But beyond Australian men’s image and the portrayal of masculinity in advertising, the picture of noughties man emerging from the research community is one of a well-balanced, self-confident guy who is comfortable with all the aspects of his ‘blokeness’. He pays as much attention to his inner Homer Simpson as his inner Ian Thorpe.
“Noughties man has come out of the closet,” social analyst at cultural change monitor Australia Scan, David Chalke, says. “He’s stopped pretending he’s a snag or he’s a metrosexual. He is smarter, he looks after himself better—we’ve not gone back to the macho brute of the seventies…but he still likes what he likes: cars, girls, beers with mates. He’s very linear in his thinking and task-orientated.”
One iconic macho stud of the Seventies was the Marlboro Man, a character devised by Leo Burnett. Asked who is the noughties version of his agency’s famous creation, Graham names Brad Pitt.
“He seems to transcend both areas—ladies love him and guys love him,” he says. “He’s seen as very worldly but also has masculine undertones because of his movies like Fight Club and Snatch. He seems to be the modern aspirational figure.”
‘Man Study’ respondents predominantly said they would rather be a top athlete, demonstrating their prowess against other men on the field, than a rock star who proved his skills in the more nebulous social arena. This can be seen as a ‘remasculation’—a reaction against metrosexuality and a phenomenon also seen in the advent of ‘virtual masculinity’: blokey computer and online games such as Grand Theft Auto.
This overall picture of balance comes as a relief to Dr Peter West of the University of Western Sydney’s research group on men and families.
“I constantly talk to people in the media who are misreading where men are at,” West, who runs workshops with advertisers and agencies, says. He puts this down to the fact that changes to the male status quo generally take place on the margins—and media executives, of course, tend to inhabit an urban, middle-class margin. So the chemists in Bondi, a popular suburb among media workers, may stock a product for removing hair from your chest but this is hardly reflective of life in the many other suburbs and towns across Australia.
“Another thing I hear from the media is how confused men are—it’s not that men are confused but we’re changing the messages we’re giving to men,” West says. “The tension happens because one sex has changed and its demands on the other sex have changed. Some of those demands are inconsistent.” Or to use the words of a panelist in the ‘Man Study’, “We’ve still got to work our arses off all day, then when we get home we’ve got to have a pink shirt in the cupboard.”
This pressure on men to perform both traditional and new roles has also been highlighted by a discussion paper, ‘Striking the Balance: Women, Men, Work and Family’, launched recently by federal sex discrimination commissioner Pru Goward. This points out that, although 68% of Australian men say they do not spend enough time with their children, “the breadwinner model continues to dominate the structure of many men’s lives”. While women have long feared being relegated to the ‘mummy track’ at work for attempting to balance the demands of employer and family, men are now equally anxious about a ‘daddy track’.
Among younger, single men—a more important audience for men’s magazines—one significant social change is that many men now live alone. Research manager in ACP Magazines’ men’s lifestyle and specialist department, Travis Godfredson, quotes the figure that 50% of Australian households are made up of one or two people. Not only does this mean men have more time and money to spend on everything from their wheels to their wardrobe, it means they are left to make their own choices in the absence of a female influence. This may not have changed things in the garage, but it does mean many men now watch their appearance more closely because there’s no one else around to do it for them. The first ad in the Setember issue of ACP’s Ralph is for L’Oréal’s new Pure & Matte Anti-Grease Moisturing Gel.
Ralph recently celebrated its eighth birthday and editor Michael Pickering says the thing that has changed most about the monthly is its marked increase in fashion content.
“[Metrosexuality] was just a marketing concept but the essence is true in that guys care more what they look like,” he says. “The prime motivation is still to pick up women, so we [cover fashion and grooming] in a practical and informative way… The Aussie guy is still the Aussie guy even if he has more product in his cupboard.”
A good example of this new class of ‘adultescent’ fella is ‘Matt’. Matt is an imaginary character created by News Magazines to personify the typical reader of its new men’s sports magazine Alpha.
“Matt is 32, he’s aspirational…but still lives in the suburbs and goes to Mum’s for a barbecue,” News Magazines MD, Phil Barker, says. “He runs his own business, lives with his girlfriend and has no responsibilities—he wants to have as much fun as possible for the next few years.” Alpha taps into this aspirational mindset by covering “everything that’s in the lifestyle” of the sports heroes they profile, from the pants they wear to the wines they drink.
“Gillette did some research that found the most influential people to young Australian men are sports people—that’s the guts of our offer,” Barker says.
How do these socio-economic factors affect the way men consume everything from magazines to underwear? ACP—publisher of Men’s Style, Street Machine, Wheels and other specialist titles that it manages alongside its lifestyle magazines—recently commissioned a survey into men’s purchasing habits. The more recent report set out to prove the hypothesis that, whereas women shop, men buy. A diagram on the first page of the presentation illustrates a woman shopping by way of a line zig-zagging around a department store, with a resultant $876 spend over three hours and 26 minutes. The man, meanwhile, heads straight to the item he wants, spending a grand total of $33 over six minutes.
The report proved the hypothesis, finding that, although men may spend more on fashion and grooming, the way they shop is the same as it has always been. Because men are task-driven, they do as much research as possible before entering the store. For this reason, Ralph’s ‘Boys Toys’ spreads and Men’s Style’s ‘Buyer Be Wear’ section are winners, as are informative ads in those titles for Coonawarra, Clinique and Hyundai. One respondent said, “I don’t like to make too many decisions. If I want white shoes, I go looking for white shoes.”
Men are more circumspect than women—not only is it important for advertisers to gain men’s trust by reaching them in their environment through channels such as magazines, but also to speak their language. Ads with a cheeky sense of humour such as those for Tooheys Extra Dry and the Ford Falcon Ute’s ‘pulling power’ were thus popular with respondents. Finally, when men get to the store, they have a competitive, hunter-gatherer mentality.
There has been some malaise about the future of the men’s magazine market, as publishers and advertisers realised men were ultimately as hard to target as women. After all, feminism saw women “put their flag out”, as Graham puts it, whereas men have yet to do this. However, men’s magazines will continue to prosper because, as ACP and Leo Burnett have confirmed, men may be adapting to a changing world but certain primal instincts hold true. One of these is tribalism—the need to belong to a gang, be it Ford drivers or laddy exponents of the values espoused by FHM and Loaded. This is why such lads’ mags are here to stay and will probably outlast any trends they seem symptomatic of, such as remasculation and retros. This tribalism can even be seen at the other end of the men’s market—on Follow Gentleman, a sophisticated, stylish title that could not be further removed from lads’ magazines.
Editor Dominic Cadden says the magazine’s thoughtful editorial is aimed at an audience “that has grown out of Ralph and FHM”, which may make the readers a certain age but has as much to do with their “state of mind”.
