All aboard: Hunkvertising is here | Adweek

Hunkvertising, now an established strategy in marketing with a brand spanking new word too. You know the genre well, it's the one where you see as many six packs as possible, but you're not selling beer - or perfume. Adweek's David Gianatasio writes about "The Objectification of Men in Advertising" and how some wish they'd just keep their assets covered today, and we got to snark about ads we don't like.

One detractor is marketing and media critic Åsk Dabitch Wäppling, who maintains, “Studly Steve is as bad of a stereotype as Doofus Dad. They’re stereotypes, and that’s by definition not original. When can we return to product-as-hero advertising? When will we stop insulting people?”

Also - "And as a mother herself and part of the target audience, she doesn’t feel they speak to her. " this is code for I think these ads have a very gay aesthetic. Props also to Steve O’Connell, ECD and partner at Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners for working in this gem: “Objectifying men doesn’t really upset anybody. You really can’t offend the white male.”

It's two pages of fun examples, so go have a read about the phenomena now dubbed hunkvertising, but remember the tactic in't all that new. It's been done since long before Molson's Hunks&Puppies were flaunted to attract women to the beer, and big romantic men sold us Brawny. Some campaigns are funnier than others.