From an 18th century religious hermit who roamed the area, to the Urguayan port named after him, the name Fray Bentos has conjured up myriad images through the ages, but perhaps none so burning as those created recently by directorial collective Happy.

Produced by Arden Sutherland-Dodd through Mother, London, "He-Man" for Fray Bentos meat pies lampoons 1980's advertising for men, giving the nod to such cheesy classics as Diet Coke's "Break" and Gillette's Best A Man Can Get campaign.

Documenting the hot and hectic daily grind of average working men, the hilarious spots have by all accounts seen the product fly off shelves. But the waxed and chiselled specimens that hawk North American prepared foods have no place in the fat and Happy world of these convenience meals.

Chubby blokes, glistening with the dew of manual labor, swing tires, extinguish fires, and weld things in pseudo-sexy split screen takes, working up a hero's appetite for tinned meat pies, treating viewers in the North and Southwest of England to eyefuls of comic reality. Set to a song that sounds remarkably like "Hero", Bonnie Tyler's '80s anthem of female dependency, the spot actually features an original track by UK band Pond Life. Listen closely and you might be able to hear "I need a He-man" rather than Tyler's maudlin "I need a hero".

"The spot harkens back to the '80s in every respect," says ASD's exec prod, Nick Sutherland-Dodd. Though he won't reveal a dollar figure, he will say the cash allocation was "Large. Big. And very 1980s". Which seems somewhat apropos for a product endorsed by British royals. According to several Internet sites, Prince Chuck has been quoted as saying "I was brought up on it, I remember eating Fray Bentos beef until it came out of my ears."

CREDITS:
Advertising Agency: Mother
Agency Producer: Charlie Gatsky
Production Company: Arden Sutherland-Dodd
Directors: Happy
Producer: Nick Sutherland-Dodd
Director of Photography: Howard Atherton, Aidrian Lyne
Art Director: Chris Chesney
Music: Pond Life
Editor: Duncan Shepherd, Final Cut
Post-Production House: The Moving Picture Company, London