Mala McAlpin Recently, SPA+CLINIC reported on America’s first ever male-only plastic surgery clinic, The Club House, opening in New York. But they aren’t the only ones working towards destigmatising male aesthetics treatments, and in the US, distributers including Allergan and Galderma are leading the charge when it comes to tailored marketing initiatives to attract more male clients to injectables.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, males reflect just a fraction of the US medical aesthetics market, with 470,000 injections of wrinkle-smoothing toxins on males in 2017, compared with over 7.2 million women.
Making headway in this division of the market is no small feat, when even topline, non-invasive, spa or relaxation-based treatments are still outwardly considered taboo amongst a lot of men. Although male injectable treatments have increased almost five times over since the year 2000 in the US, they are still climbing a lot more slowly compared to the rate of women receiving them. So what are some of the big players in the industry doing to combat this problem?
In April this year, Allergan launched an ad campaign covering print, TV and social media, that run across major male-dominated events including baseball games and the Stanley Cup Finals. It was during this time that Allergan coined the term ‘Brotox’.
“We’ve had campaigns over the past several years, but not quite on this scale,” said Bill Meury, Chief Commercial Officer at Allergan. He described the campaign investment as “significant”.
In addition, Allergan has established its own website tailored to educating men on the use of Botox, with a heavily masculine aesthetic, treatment information, before and after images, and section for busting myths around Botox, which include “only for women,” “for your lips” and “you’ll look like you’ve had work done”.
Galderma has also been using its own men-specific website for around two years to target and educate potential male customers, and Merz Pharma’s Xeomin injections are marketed as “Xeo-Men” via their brochures and website.
Clinics are also following suit in the race to normalise male injectables. Take Marina ManLand in Los Angeles for example, whose ad campaign features a man seated on a leather lounge, with highball and cigar in hand.
“I’m doing more male surgery than ever before in my entire career,” says Marina ManLand plastic surgeon Dr Grant Stevens.
