The Brawny Man

brawn.y [braw-nee]

–adjective,brawn·i·er, brawn·i·est.
muscular; strong.

—Related forms
brawn·i·ly, adverb
brawn·i·ness, noun
un·brawn·y, adjective

—Synonyms
burly, robust, strapping.

Tonight, I saw a commercial for Brawny Paper towels. This commercial confused me because I always remembered the Brawny man looking a lot older, and blonder. When I Googled him, I found out that they have changed this guy quite a few times.

The original Brawny man was a bit of a creeper. He parted his hair in the middle and looks like he is either a little drunk or squinting into the sun. Either way, I wasn't a fan. He also has his flannel shirt unbuttoned a few too many buttons down.

The next Brawny man seemed to get a few more highlights. He is blonde, still has the creepy mustache but he doesn't look as wild. He is a little bit cleaner cut. He resembles a Ken Doll if you ask me due to his side-swept hair. He also has a lot more trees behind him. Do you think this logger was going green perhaps?



Today's Brawny man is apparently based on a real person and has gotten quite a makeover from the original. To me, however, he looks a bit too digitized and computerized. You can also notice that this Brawny guy gets brawnier, or beefier, as time goes on. It looks like he has been working out over the past 30 years. As his muscles get bigger, the font type on the paper towels gets less bold. Is this a sign of the times? The beefy guy can have a more feminine look for his paper towels? Or is this meant to distract us? The fancier lettering can just make him look bigger and beefier in comparison. Why does it seem that the Brawny man has gotten a lot cuter? I never thought he was cute when I was a teenager. Is it because I am just getting older as he stays the same age? The trees behind him have grown a little, he had to have celebrated at least a few birthdays right?



After all of this speculation about the Brawny man, I have decided that I don't really care what he looks like. After all, any guy who cleans up the messes he makes sounds good to me!