Yorkie goes all out to reclaim some male territory: masculinity fights back in the latest ad campaign for Yorkie. (Live Issue/Yorkie).(Brief Article)

Trevor Beattie, the chairman and creative director of TBWA\London, reviewed the latest Boddingtons ad in Campaign last month. He didn't like it very much. The reason for his displeasure clearly stemmed from the spot's less-than-complimentary view of the average male.

Speaking of the dropping of Graham The Cow, Beattie mused: "They've made the predictable switch from putting down cattle to putting down blokes. Welcome to the herd."

Beattie's referring to the plethora of ads that have recently been firmly positioned at selling to women by putting down men, such as Lambrini, Reef and Archers.

Now there's campaign that aims to silence the sniping of the sirens, redress the balance and strike a blow for blokes across the land. But what brand will reaffirm the British manhood? A lager surely? No, unlikely as it seems, it's a chocolate bar. It's Yorkie.

"There's a whole series of ads out there at the moment that see women getting the lead on men in one way or another. I think it's time for us to turn this around," Andrew Harrison, Nestle Rowntree's marketing director, cries.

So Nestle has brought out the big guns and decided to relaunch Yorkie, its chunky chocolate bar made famous by the iconic trucker ads in the 70s.

"Traditional confectionery advertising has focused on appealing to women -- with women indulging their love of chocolate, in the bath, walking through poppy fields, images of swirling milk and cream.