HP: The Official Brown Sauce of Yobs?

Lucy Clark, senior brand manager at HP, told The Drum:

"As this is the first HP TV advert in five years, we wanted to implement a high-impact multimedia campaign around it that’s packed full of attitude and grabs the attention of younger male consumers, reminding them that the big, bold flavour of HP Sauce is the ultimate sauce of manliness for a bacon sandwich.”

Ultimate sauce of manliness? Oh.



Carrie Hindmarsh, CEO at M&C Saatchi, said of their work:

“At last, after a five year absence, HP is back with a brand new campaign – to reveal the simple, unvarnished truth about modern men. This ad neatly sums up what modern manliness means – a love of sport, mastering DIY and of course, HP Sauce.”

The campaign is aimed at men between the ages of 25 and 44, who buy into the "we're just a bunch of stupid little boys who are not responsible for our actions" trope.

I know, I know. It's humour. It's also an example of what Sociological Images' Lisa Wade has called "an anti-intellectualism that is specifically male."

It looks fairly harmless, and it probably is. And advertising does not create social trends, it reflects and reinforces them. I'm just saying that it is a tired and annoying one. Even if it ends up selling more "sauce of manliness" to those who like to be categorized this way.

Also, "Manwich"? Taken:

Really taken:

I wonder how the "ultimate sauce of manliness" works into that one?