The 'new' male consumer: Appearance management product advertising and the male physical ideal in men's interest magazines from 1965--2005

Male consumerism, especially in regards to appearance management products, has received little attention in comparison to female consumer issues. Research on the product categories, advertising appeals, and use of male body image in advertising is rare and often is simply an offshoot of a study on female consumers and is used solely for comparison, not analysis. Using men's lifestyle magazines (Esquire and Gentlemen's Quarterly) over a 40 year span (1965 to 2005) as a source of information the product categories, advertising purchasers, male model body preferences, and sexuality of imagery featuring male models were examined. Based on the information recorded from five year time periods, trends were analyzed over the last four decades to look for changes over time in the advertising campaigns within these magazines. The relevance of advertising as a symbol of American culture is explored in relation to societal changes that occur along with the changing nature of the imagery in the promotional campaigns.;This dissertation explores the changing nature of the male consumer market as defined by the mass media. The "peacock revolution" of the 1970s, the "new" man of the 1980s, and the "metrosexual" man of the late 1990s are just a few examples of the mainstream press proclaiming a new ideology and image for American men. In addition to the new exterior image of men, there has been recent discussion of a move toward a heightened level of muscularity as a measure of male beauty. Although there are numerous examples of these suppositions in the press, this research does not support such claims.;The advertising of appearance management products, and the individual product categories themselves, have remained consistent over the 40 year span, showing a steady interest in clothing and appearance products. Preferred body type for male models in these men's interest magazines has also essentially remained consistent. The mesomorphic body type is also the most popular, showing a preference for a specific waist to shoulder ratio for the male body. Aspects of the male body that have shown variation over time is body fat levels and muscularity. There has been a decrease in the amount of general body fat over time, although the lowest measured levels were recorded in the 1990s. Muscularity preference has been shown to be in the ''somewhat'' muscular rating as opposed to the ''very'' muscular rating, going against the notion that men are idealized to be larger and stronger than ever before.;Male beauty is typified through the male models that advertisers choose to use in their print campaigns. Often in advertising sex, or sexuality, is used to sell products. The sexual nature of the male models used in national advertising campaigns within the selected men's magazines was measured using several methods. Beginning in 1970 there are little significant changes in the sexual nature of advertising featuring male models. There are distinct patterns of increases and decreases detected by five year time period consistent between measurement methods. This consistency of sexual content including male body exposure goes against many published accounts promoting the idea of an increase in sexuality in advertising in recent decades.;Overall, this research presents an argument for the consistency of male appearance management product interest, ideal male body type, and sexual nature of advertising in men's interest magazines. Additional research using the magazines Details and Maxim (2000 and 2005) lends additional support to this data set and expands the overall male target market being identified. Data collected in this research study adds to the body of knowledge on male consumerism, male body aesthetics, sexuality of men in advertisements, and the processes used to collect this information in content analysis based research of advertising in men's magazines.