Section: Business

Metrosexuality
A new male market emerges
James Bond always gets the girl. His suave image is attractive to advertisers, which is why Ford renewed the
spy's association with Aston Martin with a product placement for him to drive one of its British-built sports cars
in "Die Another Day". But Bond is no Beckham.
When David Beckham ties back his hair or wraps himself in a sarong, or his wife says he wears her thongs, he
sends a powerful message to a new kind of male, according to Marian Salzman of Euro RSCG Worldwide, a
leading advertising agency. This new target market is "metrosexual", a term coined a few years ago to identify
straight urban men who enjoy such things as shopping and using beauty products. It is sometimes described in
lad mags as being "just gay enough" to get the babes.
Mr Beckham, says Ms Salzman, is a classic metrosexual. So too is Bill Clinton, she insists-especially as he has
apologised and now carries Hillary's autobiographies for her to sign.

Ms Salzman has tested the market and concludes that 30-35% of young men in America have metrosexual
tendencies: tell-tale signs include buying skin-care cream and fragrances. Also popular is having non-leg body
hair removed, via a so-called "back, crack and sack" waxing. Celebrities such as Mr Beckham make it all right
for straight men to do such odd things.
If Ms Salzman is right, then much advertising for men's grooming products could be way off mark, as it uses
images of a hot, sweaty hulk rolling deodorant under his hairy armpits. This matters: the grooming market for
young males in North America was worth around $8 billion last year, and is growing fast.
Some big firms are cottoning on to this, which suggests that metrosexuality-or something like it-may actually
exist. Last year, when Unilever launched Axe in America (Lynx in some markets) as a fragrant all-over body
spray, it said: "Personal care and grooming, traditionally the provinces of women, are increasing in importance
to young men, and this trend is expected to increase".
Following the earlier emergence of "New Man", there will presumably come a cross-over point in gender
differences. A new generation of sweaty Amazons will go out on the town while the guys stay home to do their
hair.