Man Conference kicks off

TEXT OF STORY

BRIAN WATT: Today’s there’s a conference in New York for brands that want to push the products better to men. Call it a “man conference” where the likes of Microsoft, Miller and Cadillac get together to work out how to hook that elusive young male. He’s watching less and less television these days you know. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.

ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: Sales of male-only grooming products went up 14 percent last year — and that’s not just shaving cream. Increasingly it’s moisturizer, even hair dye.

Still, there are plenty of other things marketers would like to pitch men. Robert Thompson teaches television and pop culture at Syracuse University.

ROBERT THOMPSON: “Men buy all kinds of things besides trucks and large screen TVsa€¦you know people in college fraternities have gotta buy hot plates and kitchen utensils and all the rest of it and I think it’s been very unclear how one begins to appeal to that group.”

The problem he says is that advertisers love stereotypes. And when it comes to men, they haven’t progressed much beyond the beer swilling, nacho-chomping sports nut or another stereotype that was all the rage a few years ago, the now-reviled metrosexual.

In New York I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.