The early days of the Axe and Lynx Space Academy contest (which we broke on January 9th) to fly winners into space has encountered a not-unforseeable snag: Some of the leaders in the social media-based competition for spots on the space flight are women, despite the original wording of the male-skewing sibling brands' contest: "Leave a man. Come back a hero."

This presents an interesting identity challenge to the Unilever-owned brands that have built their identification on the testosterone-fueled young male in search of—and equally targeted by—eager females. Now, eager females include those that are just as eager as their male counterparts to get into space. For example, Justine Ezarik, better known as internet celebrity iJustine, recently was at number four on the leader board, according to Ad Age. Social media support is the most crucial component of bids to get the brands' consideration for slots on flights by Space X Corp. beginning in 2014.Continue reading...

It just wasn’t enough for Weight Watchers International to overhaul its entire calorie-counting scheme earlier this year with the introduction of the Points Plus system.

And, apparently, it wasn’t enough for Weight Watchers management to see brand ambassador Jennifer Hudson heap high praise on the brand and its approach. “Now I’ve lost weight, my voice is getting back to a [better] state,” she said.

So now, Weight Watchers is really turning its weight-loss positioning in a new direction — by going after men.Continue reading...

“Yeah, 1983… 27 freakin’ years ago!” blogs Al Watts, ”Almost every news story about at-home dads asks, 'So you’re a Mr. Mom?' or uses 'Mr. Mom' in the title of the story or shows a 'hilarious' clip of Michael Keaton in the 1983 movie, Mr. Mom."

It's 2011 and everyone's still trying to figure out how to appeal to the legions of men who are stay-at-home care-takers and shoppers.Continue reading...

Real men have touchably smooth skin! At least, the men who use the newly branded Vaseline for Men. The lotion claims to be for the face and body, and comes with an advertising campaign encouraging men to tone up their skin the way they do the rest of their bodies.

Which is great – but is it really going to have men buying lotion in droves?

Branding lotion specifically for men is a tough task, as Nivea proved last year. When they attempted to stock Nivea for men in the Men’s aisles of department stores, sales in the past year totaled a mere $210,000. No wonder Vaseline has chosen the unisex aisle.Continue reading...

What would you do for a Klondike Bar? If the answer is: flee your nagging wife and children and reclaim your manhood, you seem to be Klondike’s newest target market.

On the Klondike website currently, you will find a man cave, where you can play a video game that revolves around helping staid, suburban Khaki Pants Pete go out on the town with a 21-year-old babysitter and watch pudding wrestling at a strip club. (Because real men drink Buds, watch the NFL and eat dainty delicious ice cream sandwiches.)

If this technique had been used to promote either Budweiser or the NFL it would have made sense – rather than forcing viewers to imagine a world where ice cream bars are the ultimate in rebellion.Continue reading...