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It's super-thick. It's chunky. It's yogurt for men.
New Zealand dairy company Fonterra has created a new yogurt, under the brand name Mammoth Supply Co., that's tailored for tough guys. Its marketing plays on social stereotypes of what's considered "manly," including labelling that reads: "This is a men's yoghurt and you are a man. Now find a spoon, fork, or spade and dig in," The New Zealand Herald reports. The yogurt, filled with fruit, seeds, grains and barley, also comes in rectangular 325-g cartons, which is more than double the size of your typical individual-sized servings.
Television and radio advertisements for the product are narrated by The Big Lebowski actor Sam Elliott, who reads in his deep voice that "men can eat yogurt - just as long as it's thick and chunky and built to tame a man's hunger."
The company told the Herald it came up with the marketing campaign after its research showed men don't eat yogurt because they consider it food for their wives and girlfriends, or as "diet" food.
Fonterra's not the only company drawing upon men's food-related gender hang-ups either.
In an attempt to appeal to men, weight loss company Jenny Craig made Seinfeld star Jason Alexander its spokesman early this year. Meanwhile, advertisements for the diet soft drink Pepsi Max joke that it's made of fictitious testosterone-pumping ingredients like wolverine spittle and scorpion venom.
Masculine? Maybe. But does the food taste better if it's "manly"?
Wency Leung