‘Brawny Man’ Launches Online Academy For Slobs

By Rick Mathieson
GENERATION WOW

The Brawny Man is using the Internet to help modern men get in touch with their sensitive sides.

You may remember the advertising icon, who first emerged in a 1974 television commercial, as a modern day Paul Bunyon who’s always on hand to demonstrate Brawny’s rugged, double-quilt toughness.

But in recent years, he’s become a bit of a renaissance man, an effortless alpha male who’s pure testosterone with a touch of class - at once ready to chop a cord of wood or assess the nose on a glass of Chianti.

Now, in an inspired twist on today’s multiplatform marketing strategies, he’s launching “The Brawny Academy” (www.brawnyacademy.com), a new Web site featuring an eight-episode reality show that follows a group of men sent by their wives to reform their slovenly ways.

Produced by advertising agency Fallon Worldwide and paper company General Pacific Corp., “Brawny Academy” is highly entertaining and surprisingly well produced – a kind of “Survivor” meets “The Man Show” meets “Queer Eye for The Straight Guy.”

The Brawny Man, played pitch perfect by actor John Brennan, is described as the stuff of legends. As his bio reads: “Some say he was created by Sanitarius, the Greek goddess of hearth and home. Some say he was created by a paper company.”

In the first episode, posted last week, Brawny Man intones in a perfect mix of grit and gallantry, “Welcome to Brawny Academy. It’s good to have you here. You know, there’s nothing like chopping wood to the sound of the red-throated warbler to make you realize what’s important. Like being a dependable, strong, yet caring man.”

And the choice of campers is genius. There’s Roland, described as a 32-year-old truck driver and father of six from Framingham, MA, who is “miraculously able to squeeze in 10 hours of television a day, even after working all day.” His wife Marianna is hoping Brawny can help cure Roland of his laziness.

Barclay, a 37-year-old mason from East Hampstead, NH, meanwhile, is sent by his wife Janel, for his inability to finish home improvement projects.

And don’t forget Buck, a 28-year-old construction worker and rotund “non-flusher” whose idea of romancing his girlfriend Jennifer is sending her virtual flowers from an online game.

Imagine Puck from MTV’s “The Real World” as a 35-year-old, pot-bellied married man and you get the idea.

In episode one, the guys are flown in by plane to Little River, where they’re greeted by attractive young ladies who accompany them by bus to the grounds of Brawny Academy.

“My name is Brawny Man, but my friends call me ‘Brawny Man,’” our host inform us, before separating the men into two teams who compete in axe-throwing and two-man saw cutting contests.

Back at the lodge, the men are rewarded with a man-size barbeque meal, cigars, a poker table, a big-screen TV and all-you-can-drink beer. A ribald night of partying, much to the chagrin of their female hosts, who endure a few lewd comments. But, hung over or not, the men are awakened bright and early by Brawny Man playing Reveille on a bugle.

We learn that the night of fun was just a ruse, and that this little band of brothers is about to embark on a life-altering adventure.

After each 15-minute episode, viewers can vote on their favorite cast mates for the chance to win Brawny Academy gear like a cooler, fleece or camping chair. And between episodes, they can view a “Life’s Little Instruction Guide”-style handbook with illustrations on removing a red wine stain, estimating your wife’s lingerie size, and cleaning the toilet.

All of which may lead you to ask: Is this any way to sell paper towels?

Well, aside from the how-to tips, which invariably include our product wiping up spills of all sorts, efforts such as this are, in the vernacular of brand marketers, called “engagement” marketing. The idea is to get consumers to spend as much time as possible with your brand in order to boost the likelihood that they’ll purchase your product.

"If Brawny can show women they understand the issues in the house – they'll go as far as to retrain your husband ... that will help set them apart from the other brands," Kris Wixom, an art director at Fallon, recently told the Atlanta Business Chronicle. As he puts it, "Likeability translates into more sales."

To be sure, Brawny is hardly the first brand to offer online video entertainment designed to engage consumers. BMW films launched its popular serial “The Hire” online in May 2001, with each episode directed by renowned filmmakers and featuring BMW automobiles in a starring role as the car of choice for real men who depend on – and love – fast, nimble getaway vehicles. And Amazon’s new “Fishbowl” series is engagement programming within a talk show motif.

Does it work? Hard to tell. But in an age of TiVo and other time- and place-shifting technologies, keeping consumers tuned into a show dedicated to your product seems like something worth exploring. BMW’s series, for instance, has been downloaded 100 million times.

Whether paper towels can soak up that kind of attention remains to be seen.

One look at “Brawny Academy,” and more than a few men may hope the answer is no.

Comments

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This is crazy, but I'm in love with Brawny Man, I Only buy Brawny towels now, and I don't care if people think I'm nuts!

Brawny Man is Mine! All mine!!! : )

This must be marketing genius, they got me, they SOOO got me, I'm so THEIRS!

ohmigosh!