In the movie “Masters of the Universe,” He-Man is a warrior with bulging muscles. But it turns out that the source of his strength, the power of Grayskull, isn’t available to the middle-age audience watching the film in a fit of nostalgia.
Cue the protein!
Mattel, the toy company that created He-Man more than 40 years ago, has made no secret of its desire to turn the film into a merchandising juggernaut. That even extends to tapping into Americans’ seemingly insatiable appetite for muscle-building protein.
The company has teamed up with Perfect Sports, a Canadian maker of nutritional supplements, to make a limited-edition line of He-Man-branded whey protein products and other supplements for athletes and weekend warriors looking to bulk up.
The goal is to reach the audience that watched He-Man as a cartoon in the 1980s. The largest segment of the movie’s audience has been men ages 45 to 54, according to the Hollywood research firm PostTrak.
“It’s very good marketing,” said Silvia Bellezza, an associate professor of business in marketing at Columbia Business School.
The tie-in piggybacks on Americans’ desire to consume more protein. Whey protein is a multibillion-dollar industry, driven by weight lifters looking to build muscle and users of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs hoping to avoid muscle loss. PepsiCo said last year that it would make snacks with added protein, nutrition bar makers are doing the same, and dairy farmers are profiting from the protein boom.
Mattel, which has filled shelves with a trove of action figures tied to the movie, has also teamed up with an array of other companies to create products befitting a sword-and-sorcery franchise.
Mars Petcare is introducing Temptations kitty treats for felines dreaming of becoming He-Man’s Battle Cat, with flavors like Battle Bacon Crunch. Denny’s is telling customers to defeat their hunger with its He-Man Battle Burger.
Marketing was simpler four decades ago when Masters of the Universe was introduced as a toy line, said Nick Karamanos, a senior vice president at Mattel who oversees licensing. “I grew up on it as a child,” he said. “I remember the thermos bottles in the lunch boxes.”
Mattel took a broader approach to market the movie, he added, which includes finding not only the right categories but the right partners.
Perfect Sports already had experience doing collaborations for movies like “Thunderbolts” and “Captain America: Brave New World,” said Steve Gibb, the company’s senior vice president of global sales and business development. He added that many of the company’s executives, including the owner, Bruce Colero, had grown up on He-Man.
“Everything connected for us with this collaboration, from the personal to the business side,” he said.
The hero’s revival comes at a time of growing concern about the so-called manosphere, which has been criticized for its toxic and misogynistic views. But some marketing experts say “Masters of the Universe” provides a good counterexample.
“He-Man is more about physical fitness,” said Chris Colombo, the founder of Brighter Path, a consulting firm focused on media and entertainment.
