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Yogurt for manly men

Cory Doctorow at 11:36 am Mon, Mar 18, 2013

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A company called "Powerful Yogurt" has shipped a line of "brogurt" -- single-serving bacteria cultures that are meant to appeal to manly men who are put off by the femininity of traditional yogurt packaging. Comedian Jessi Klein said of the product on an episode of NPR's Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me, "If male yogurt marketing is anywhere near as annoying as female yogurt marketing, you are in for a treat. Every female yogurt commercial is basically like women in a wedding dress just petting a kitten and eating yogurt."

Now NPR has a full review:

Peter: I liked the fact there was no lid. You had to smash it on your forehead to get to it.

Ian: I guess this is pretty manly, but not as manly as that Dannon flavor you have to hunt and kill with your bare hands.

Mike: This is good. Like, this is "morning after a night in a Tijuana brothel and I still have both my kidneys" good.

Brogurt doesn't taste so different than regular yogurt. We were sort of hoping for manly flavors, like "Truck" or "Mixed Berry Martial Arts."

Miles: I could really go for some "Essence of Burt Reynolds."

Mike: I like that yogurt flavor titles do not appear on bill.

Yogurt For Men: A Review [Ian Chillag/NPR]

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE:  Food • gender • not food

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  • Brainspore

    I like the Whiskey Beef flavor best.

    • welcomeabored

      ‘Bour-B-Q’
      ‘Peachy IPA’
      ‘Strawberries ‘n Jerky’
      ‘Macho Mustachio Mango’

      • http://twitter.com/NelC NelC

        Diesel.
        Sweatsock.
        New-Mown Lawn.
        10 Pints of Lager and a Curry.
        Squash Court.
        New Car.
        Newly Printed Money.

        • welcomeabored

          Ahahahaha!  *a 4-star curry*  

        • Lupus_Yonderboy

          Half Smoked Cigar
          Mashed Potatoes And Gravy
          Sour Hangover Mouth
          Regret
          Double Chocolate

          • welcomeabored

            Dingle Berry
            Man Cave Coffee
            Jock Itch Banana
            (Enlarged) Prostate Plum

          • robuluz

            Drunken Quest for Oblivion
            GRRRRR!!! ANGRY!!!!
            Delicious Brains
            Stridently Held Cell Phone Brand Loyalty

        • SumAnon

          Hammer and Nails.
          Punching Bag Punch.
          Fresh Pleated Pants.
          Gun.
          Chest Hair Chutney.

        • http://www.facebook.com/kamsbry Kelly Amsbry

           One of my bestest friends has always believed that the world needs Chunky Beef with Gravy (you stir it) yogurt. Maybe his idea can finally be realized.

          • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

            Except you shouldn’t have to stir it. That’s too much like cooking, and therefore unmanly!

          • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

            cooking is only manly if you punch it to death first

          • SumAnon

             No joke, there ARE a lot of beef + gravy + yogurt recipes out there.

    • SomeGuyNamedMark

       I like the “Sawdust and Machine Oil” one myself

  • Preston Sturges

    Does it have electrolytes? 

    • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

      It’s what plants crave.

  • chellberty

    Straight Men will not “swallow” “Man yogurt”

    • SomeGuyNamedMark

       Especially if it has pics of fruits on it

  • http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm

    My masculinity is under threat as never before. First Sergey Brin tells me that I’m being emasculated by my cellphone. Now I learn that my breakfast yoghurt choices are making me less of a man.

    Where will it all end?

    • Ambiguity

      Just put some really crunchy shit in it — say, bacon and small wood screws — and you’ll be fine.

      • morcheeba

        AND STAY AWAY FROM THE QUICHE!!

        • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

          I’ve never understood the quiche hate, it’s just an omelette pie

          • Antinous / Moderator

            I completely understand the quiche hate, but due to its flavor, not it’s cultural implications.

          • Bradley Robinson

             And what flavor might that be?  Egg, or pastry?  Cheese, maybe?

  • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

    Is it just me, or have they tipped headlong past the line where being un-ironically ’manly’ turns around and starts running headlong toward ‘pathetic man-child we thought existed only in bad comedy films’ territory?

    • xzzy

      Nope, “they” have just realized how effective gender based marketing is when selling stuff for kids, so some genius decided they could make a couple tenths of a percent more money by using the same tactics on adults.

      Just about everything has to have a gender associated with it anymore. I don’t know what’s more disappointing: that they’re attempting it, or that it actually works.

  • oscar

    It certainly does seem like a self-aware joke, but what do I know? I’ve been eating “lady” yogurt for years.

    Also, The Onion predicted this years ago: http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-texasstyle-yogurt-to-feed-mansize-hunger-for-y,2422/

    • blueelm

      You know, if you had me look at both the images themselves and asked which was the parody, I would have picked the one with the abs.

    • chenille

      I thought of this comic, but now in comparison it seems way too heart-warming. It offers some good flavors like “Bear Fight”, though.

  • blueelm

    The only way they could make this better is if they combined the concept with go-gurt and you had to suck the man yogurt out.

    • eviladrian

       Just make the package a penis, why not?
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2A002Em8Yw

  • schlocktober

    If only those rumors about Jamie Lee Curtis were true, she could be a spokesperson for this yogurt, too. I just can’t get enough of her talking about bowel movements on TV!

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

      Look on the bright side: now you’ll get to hear about Dog The Bounty Hunter’s bowel movements. I’m sure he’s their first choice for spokesman.

    • http://twitter.com/NelC NelC

      You know that in polite company, people are the gender they present as, right?

      Not that this is necessarily polite company.

  • atlouiedog

    25g protein in an ~8 oz serving is pretty good. I’m a fan of Fage. 20g in each 7 oz serving. It’s the highest protein I’ve seen in any of the greek yogurts sold near me, but I didn’t realize that until after I’d tried a bunch and deemed it my favorite based on flavor. I don’t know what the price of this stuff is, but Fage regularly goes on sale for $1 at my local stores and I stock up when it happens. It’s a great snack that I eat almost every day.

    • Jorpho

      That’s the first thing I’ve seen so far that actually makes me want to try this yogurt.  Not that I expect the marketers to appreciate that.

  • MonkeyBoy

    I thought “yoghurt for men” was the plain varieties. Not the sickly sweet and flavored and adulterated (gelatin? granola?) varieties designed for children and women.

    Real men will eat full-fat yoghurt and its not a sissy thing to add cut up fruits or vegetables or even spices to it. Hell, even add diced onions and bacon to make a potato topping.

    • Brainspore

      REAL men don’t go for that over-processed cultured stuff at all. They just walk to the ranch, lift up a cow and suck that teat dry.

      • oasisob1

        Real men don’t ‘walk to the ranch’ – they already live there. Also, they don’t drink the milk, they skewer the cow, roast it and eat it. Yogurt is for girls and no tricky ad campaign is going to make me believe otherwise.

        • Brainspore

          You roast it? Any meat that spends more than a few seconds over the fire is overcooked. And steak knives are for girly-men who can’t tear a large animal apart with their bared teeth.

    • dragonfrog

      Full-fat?   Faugh, insufficiently manly for my exacting standards of manliness.  It must have at least 9 or 10% fat.

      • Ambiguity

        Real men eat infant yogurt — highest fat content you’ll ever find, made from whole milk, cream awaiting you on the top.

        • http://twitter.com/NelC NelC

          Real men eat lard!

    • chenille

      Also, real men should definitely stick to spelling it yoghurt. It makes for better quips right before you drown your enemies in it.

      • Lupus_Yonderboy

        Yeah, f*ck those yogs.  They deserve everything they get.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

    I’m glad to see they’ve given it special packaging. Most yogurt comes in containers that are an unmanly shade of white and that have pictures of fruit on them. What self-respecting man would eat anything out of such a container? Men need yogurt that comes in a black container, preferably with a design that looks like claw marks across it, because we men need to feel that the yogurt we’re eating is dangerous. Other acceptable colors are camouflage, blood red, and aubergine, even though no self-respecting man knows what aubergine is.

    http://freethinkersanonymous.com/ViewFreethinkers.asp?Edition=20130308

  • thekinginyellow

    http://current.com/shows/infomania/88941392_sarah-haskins-in-target-women-yogurt-edition.htm

  • LordInsidious

    To be fair, wouldn’t a manly man eat any kind of yogurt no matter the packaging?  If the fact that the ads or packaging for the yogurt are girly somehow scares you or makes you feel less manly, IMO you’re not too manly.  So I guess this is the yogurt for un-manly men who don’t want others to know (unless they figure this out).

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

      The advertisers have probably already taken into consideration the fact that men who feel their masculinity is threatened by yogurt packaging will realize eating “manly yogurt” makes them look un-manly. This is really a ploy to get those same men to eat Activia.

      • dragonfrog

        Would those men eat Activia twice?  It does taste pretty nasty.

        • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

          If it tasted like grizzly gallbladder torn out by fists alone they would.

  • jimkirk

    Is this one of those products you apply to your underarm and women shouldn’t contact it because it will stimulate the growth of facial hair?

  • http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

    From the looks of it, it tastes like Axe.

  • http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

    Every female yogurt commercial is basically like women in a wedding dress just petting a kitten and eating yogurt

    How ridiculous, I’m scandalized. Female yogurt commercials are like women in yoga pants eating yogurt in an all white room with flowing drapes.

    • welcomeabored

      …played by Jennifer Lopez.  (She went through a ‘white everything’ phase in decor.)

    • oasisob1

      That was before the shortage:
      http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2013/03/18/lululemon-expects-yoga-pants-shortage-first-quarter-results-to-suffer/

  • TheMudshark

    Great product, until now I´ve always felt like such a fairy when eating yogurt. I mostly did it in secret, when I was alone at home, full of shame. To make up for my lost manliness I had to be a jerk to my wife when she got home, too.

  • http://twitter.com/unexplodedscot Scott Rose

    Fuck yogurt. Real men drink kefir instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir 

    • jgs

      Real men make their own kefir. And their own yogurt.

    • timquinn

      Real men are NAMED Kefir, OK?

  • Guysmiley

    “0% Fat” You know what else has 0% fat? A five pound bag of sugar.

  • Bradley Robinson

    Real manly men scoff at overt attempts to coddle to their masculinity.  They also open the car door for their significant other, like a fucking gentleman.

    • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

      All the girls I’ve dated were too impatient for that.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        I open the door for anyone getting into the passenger seat of my car. If you were coming to your home with a friend, it would be sort of odd for them to open the door rather than allow you to do it.

        • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

          “”I open the door for anyone getting into the passenger seat of my car.”"

          I do that to clear out the trash -__-

          • Antinous / Moderator

            Oh, you’re one of those.  I keep my car clean, although I’ve been keeping four huge trash bags of down comforters and pillows in the back for the last six years since I have more free space in the car than in the condo.

          • blueelm

            Now I have an image of a woman rushing the passenger door only to be buried beneath an avalanche of garbage!

        • Gilbert Wham

           It’d be kinda alarming if they could, for that matter.

  • SomeGuyNamedMark

    “men who are put off by the femininity of traditional yogurt packaging”

    Yah, I’m put off by that girly-girl ingredients list and picture of fruit on the front.  My friends keep giving me a hard time about it.  Only a picture of a half naked man on my yogurt will assert my manly straightness.

  • dawdler

    Nothing makes me feel more manly than looking at a picture of another man’s abs.

    • Jorpho

      I’m thinking it’s probably intended to be a “clever” photo of a bacterial cell culture.  At least, I certainly hope it is. (It’s too blurry and indistinct to qualify as some depiction of musculata, anyway.)

      The logical conclusion is of course that it is only a matter of time before someone tries a “Science is Manly” campaign.

  • http://www.leidentech.com leidentech

    Motor oil flavored.   But then why wrap it in yoghurt… available at your local gas station.  In several different viscosities.

  • teknocholer

    When their marketing people approached him to endorse this, Michael Westen just laughed. Then Fiona kicked their asses and blew up their car.

  • peregrinus

    This should be cooled to 5 degrees Kelvin and then gnashed hard in your front teeth.  That would be manly.

  • Mark_Frauenfelder

    Eating 0% fat foods is a sure-fire way to get fat.

    • Donald Petersen

      True dat.  Red Vines and Dr Pepper did it for me.

      • oasisob1

        I recently notice that popcorn is being marketed as whole grain.

  • chenille

    And who is looking out for the islands of Mayotte? They could be losing their domain extension to stupid dairy products.

  • dawdler

    To me that packaging is entirely unappealing.  It looks like a dietary supplement.  But maybe that’s the intent. But I’m not sure “gym rat” is the primary definition of masculinity anyway…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1674805833 Beryl MacLachlan

    And the trade name for creamy bit on top style–”No Homo,” of course.

  • TheOven

    I thought we had gotten beyond this type of crap. But like some racist joke that we know we shouldn’t laugh at but do, we just keep repeating the same mistake over and over again, in-spite of ourselves.

    I’ll tell you this much, if you are not eating yogurt because it’s too feminine for you, then you don’t deserve yogurt.

  • http://twitter.com/RosettaMaranos lil sputums

    There was also an episode of “Raising Hope” a couple of seasons back that had brogurt as a thing. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2108897/

  • http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty

    I’ll put my brogurt in my manbag while I manscape my moobs.

  • matthew keough

    Yo-girth

  • http://mariess.co.uk mariess

    did no one else watch the TV programme “food unwrapped” where they showed you how they extract this bacteria from human faeces. WHY DO PEOPLE STILL BUY THIS?!?!?! 

    • Ambiguity

      You say that like it’s a bad thing.

    • oasisob1

      If that bothers you, don’t look into how anything else you eat is produced. I mean, the only truly safe way to live would be as a level seven vegan – not allowed to eat anything that casts a shadow.

      • Lupus_Yonderboy

        Nah, moss production can get kind of f’ked up sometimes.

  • oldtaku

    Don’t do it, men! You’ll end up like women, with atrophied vestigial  pooping organs, no longer able to poop without consuming yogurt.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=30003282 Houston Lang

    The only advertisement you need to get men to eat yoghurt is a little show called ‘Burn Notice.’ Hell, put Bruce Campbell on the label and watch your sales soar.