L'Oreal is the AFL's latest sponsor. Has the metrosexual thing gone too far?
Have your say below.
http://blogs.theage.com.au/lifestyle/beautybeat/archives/2008/02/hair_balls.htmlIf footballers use it, it must be pretty manly, right? Well, maybe. A hair care brand has become a sponsor of a football team, apparently for the first time. Whether this is a reflection of the ''metrosexualisation'' of the AFL (League players would be inappropriate brand ambassadors, surely!) or of men's general fascination with their hair is debatable. Perhaps it's simply commonsense marketing by Matrix Men hair care, part of the L'Oreal group: Matrix is hooking up with the Richmond Football Club, which has some 30,000 members and drew 900,000 people to its matches last year.
''Not only will the players looks great on and off the field, it provides a perfect opportunity for the Matrix brand to be communicated to a broad audience,'' says Brent Durrant of Matrix. Quite. Richmond Football Club president Gary March says footy, ''which used to be the working man's sport, rugged an rough'', was now about appearance and ''being a role model''. Four players, including Nathan Brown and Brett Deledio, have been recruited as Matrix Men Style Control System range spokesmen. ''Ten years ago, if someone opened a jar of hair gel in the locker rooms they would have been run out of football,'' March told The Sunday Age.
Have men ''evolved'' so much in the past decade? Do their grooming habits generally involve product - and is it just hair stuff that is acceptable? Is it just the young ones at it? Or just men in the media spotlight? (It's not men in the print media, I can tell you...)
