Campbell's: Real Men Are Chunky Men

Call me a naive idealist, but those Chunky soup commercials featuring NFL players lost their flavor when I found out that Eagles QB Donovan McNabb's "mother," who co-starred in several ads, was actually portrayed by actress Marcella Lowery.

So I'm pleased to read in the New York Times that the Campbell's Soup Company is focusing its newest campaign on the classic working man rather than the gridiron giant. Though the soup brand tries to whet the appetites of the mainly manly variety – think shipyard workers, not accountants – the ads wisely will target the women in their lives who are usually the ones buying the food. "Your man works hard," seems to be the idea, "so doesn't he deserve a hearty (yet convenient) meal?"

If the brand takes a page from Miller's "High Life Man," ads featuring a guy too busy to clean off his greasy hands before eating a donut, then I hope to one see of these salt-of-the-earth types eating the piping-hot soup with his bare hands. Real men don't need utensils!

(A real-man postscript: The author of the Times article refers to a former Cowboys QB named Troy Aiken. Perhaps our Timesman should watch a little more Sunday Night Football and a little less American Idol?)