Here's what Advertising thinks makes a man:
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ChicagoBusiness.com She knows her men
By Julie Jargon
Oct. 16, 2006A white-haired man struggling with an armful of file folders scoots past Rose Cameron, rushing to make his train. Ms. Cameron guesses the man is a lawyer hurrying home to see his family. "He would be staying here all night working on that stuff if he was just a power seeker, but he wants to be at home with someone," she says. "He's definitely a patriarch."Ms. Cameron's diagnosis is no parlor trick. As the "man expert" at ad agency Leo Burnett Worldwide Inc., her job is to understand males — and how to market to them.She is the author of an extensive worldwide study that is changing the way companies like McDonald's Corp. market to men. The study, in which Ms. Cameron and her colleagues interviewed 2,000 men from Saudi Arabia to Shanghai, divided men into four categories: patriarchs, power seekers, metrosexuals and retrosexuals. Presented last year at an advertising conference in France, the study created a stir as the first of its kind to suggest that male consumers can be as nuanced and diverse as women. It also found that 74% of men feel that images of their gender in advertising are out of touch with reality, portraying them either as boorish frat boys or hapless dolts."I think they're on to something," Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, says of Ms. Cameron's work. "You're starting to see marketing to men changing."Ms. Cameron's study reached the surprising conclusion that patriarchs — men who say being a good father and partner is the true measure of a man — make up the largest group of male consumers.That's a powerful point for McDonald's, Ms. Cameron's biggest client. She has used her insights to help the Oak Brook-based burger giant craft a commercial featuring patriarchs. The "Dads making dinner" spot, which began airing in June, shows kids from various countries running to find a sibling and telling them something urgent in their native tongue. English-speaking viewers finally understand when an American kid, breathless from running, tells his brother, "Dad's making dinner." The commercial ends with shots of dads bringing home McDonald's."The idea of dads as heroes has been part of our brand for 50 years, but the way we tell it in this ad is very modern," says Matt Biespiel, McDonald's senior director of global brand development.Mr. Biespiel says the chain also has been studying Ms. Cameron's findings on power seekers — men who define their success by their careers and constantly seek new life experiences. "It's something we're intrigued by," he says.Ms. Cameron, 37, trumpets her insights with an effusive zeal and the accent of her childhood home in Scotland. Conversations tend to become monologues, punctuated by vigorous gesticulations.Mr. Biespiel recalls a video the two collaborated on that explained the new commercial to McDonald's marketing execs."It was supposed to be my 15 minutes of fame," he says. "Fifteen minutes later, Rose was still talking."At Union Station, Ms. Cameron spots a power seeker, a thirtysomething dressed in a well-fitting dark suit, holding a black cell phone to his ear. He signals he's smart and successful, she says, with a newspaper sticking out of a black leather briefcase. Later, she nods to another fast walker; he's in a dark suit, blue shirt and metallic-green tie. "You can smell a man who goes to Nordstrom and uses a personal shopper," she says. Power seekers, she explains, often hire someone to dress them.Ms. Cameron, who favors loose-fitting black outfits augmented by colorful jackets or wraps, took a while to settle into her specialty.
After brief stints at other agencies, she landed at Leo Burnett in October 2004.A few months later the agency, which conducts an annual research project, tapped Ms. Cameron to design its man study. As she threw herself into it, her most important male relationship was falling apart. Her five-year marriage ended in divorce about the time the man study wrapped up — an irony not lost on her."I felt like I was seeing my personal life in a focus group and I was in the back of the room watching it," says Ms. Cameron.There are no metrosexuals in the train station on this cloudy October day. "Where are all the pretty boys?" Ms. Cameron asks, even though she knows the answer: Despite the media hype a couple of years ago over these sensitive urban types, who pay careful attention to grooming and like to cook, there just aren't that many of them.Marketers appear to be catching on. United Airlines is running an animated commercial featuring a man who tucks his son into bed before he heads off on a trip. An American Airlines commercial shows a dad who calls his daughter during business trips. Even ads for Miller Genuine Draft took a less adolescent turn earlier this year with an ad campaign featuring the tagline, "Beer, grown up."Though none of those companies is a Leo Burnett client, the ads reflect a similar rethinking of the male consumer."We have been noticing over the last couple of years that the way men were being spoken to wasn't reflective of men," says a Miller spokesman. "Men in beer commercials for 15 years have been portrayed as buffoons."
Which man are You?
PATRIARCH 37%
• Family is your priority. You always feel torn between the time you spend at work and at home.• It's really important to you that you are there for your partner, sharing equally in parenting duties.• The majority of your most fulfilling moments are ones that you spend with your family — at games, on trips, or just sitting around the table.• The legacy you leave the world is embodied in your family.
Metro 24%
• You have a strong aesthetic sense. People are always commenting on your attention to style and grooming, considering you "ahead of the pack."• You don't have issues experimenting with a variety of haircare and skincare products. You may even think shaving is a fashion statement.• Girlfriends have often told you that you are the most understanding guy they've ever dated.• You cook a pretty mean paella or any other complicated dish.
Power Seeker 23%
• You are your own man.• An explorer, you are constantly searching for ways to define yourself and excel in life.• Personal performance is of paramount importance to you, whether in work, travel or play.• You have a list of explicit goals in life.• Excelling at these achievements will show the world you were here.
Retro 16%
• You don't "talk through" problems. You deal with them.• You prize above all else a solid group of guy friends who are bound together by loyalty.• You have absolutely no interest in cooking or cleaning.• No one woman will ever be as important to you as your friends.
Ms. Cameron's research is far from over. She dedicates at least two hours a week to reading the latest research on men and helps other Leo Burnett executives design more focused studies, like the one the agency's Puerto Rico office is doing on Caribbean patriarchs. And she can never just walk down the street without assessing men.At Union Station, a man with a buzz cut stiffly walks past, his arms immobile at his sides, a scowl on his face. "Retros often look angry or disappointed, usually because their rightful place has been usurped by a woman," she says. The man shoots Ms. Cameron a nasty glare, but she doesn't flinch."I love men," she says, looking around. "I really love men."©2006 by Crain Communications Inc.
If you go to the article, you'll see that she loves men so much that she goes out of her way to look like one... SNAP!
Anyhoo, I'm a Patriarch. That's pretty clear. However, I have yet to see many ads that are clearly aimed at me. I will say that if I purported to be making dinner and came home with McDonalds, my wife would give me the frying pan (to the head). More about the metrosexual being dead though; interesting. I think it's more likely that while these generalizations are just that. Most men are blends of the 4.
For the record, my least favorite ad is the one where the guy base jumps in a suit and then drives away in an isuzu or something. That might be the stupidedst ad ever.
How bout doze bears?
I answered this ad, and the audition was fun. To add Cred, I took some pics of my brother's collection. Like my mom says, "You got to use what you got to get what you want". I thought you guys would like to see how a Wrestlemaniac lives. The first is about a third of my brother's wrestling video collection.
