Men buy Mars, women prefer Galaxy: Gender targeting is advertising industry's secret weapon

Food Doctor Easy Goodness Roasted Basil Chicken with Puy Lentils & Spelt or Mr Brain's Pork Faggots?

Healthy-eating associations for ready meals such as The Food Doctor range appeal mainly to women. Contrary to first impressions, however, Mr Brain's - with its tongue-in-cheek name, no nonsense packaging and humorous marketing - is also aimed at women wanting to give their man the meal he deserves.

In the Mr Brain's commercial now running on TV, the man of the house is presented as a hero for fixing the stair carpet and rewarded accordingly, and the product is presented to women as 'a real man's meal'. 'There is a recognition that we know you know this is irony,' he adds. 'Yet there is a grain of truth in the old idea that satisfying the stomach is the quickest way to a man's heart.'