• Ad Age, Monday, March 8, 2010 10:55 AM

I knew the term "metrosexual" had long ago passed into the Valhalla where "hip," "groovy" and "affluent" reside when I heard a burly ex-cop on NBC's "The Marriage Ref" refer to himself as one last week.

Jack Neff confirms that the word has been passé among marketers of men's grooming aids since they discovered, a half-dozen years ago, that it "tended to pigeonhole their products with a relatively narrow segment of upscale, fashion-conscious men." In truth, the segment is much broader and has been expanding to $2.1 billion at present and $2.8 billion by 2012, according to Nielsen's projections.

One particularly interesting battle-in-the-making pits Procter & Gamble's traditionally masculine Old Spice and Gillette brands against the high-profile entry of Dove Men+Care. Recent Old Spice ads urge women to get their men to stop using "lady-scented body wash"; a spot for Gillette's body wash says, "Just because it says it's for men doesn't mean it is."

Unilever responds that its Axe is the leading men's personal-care brand in categories outside shaving and claims its has captured two-thirds of the growth in men's grooming over the past five years.

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