Is the Trivago guy really the new object of affection for middle-aged women? What happened to the Marlboro Man? Has that rugged, sexy, smoking icon has been replaced by, (musical cue – bom, bom, bom) the Trivago guy?

As an advertising campaign it’s clearly working! Maybe not the stats of Marlboro where Leo Burnett turned a filtered cigarette with a feminine psyche into a testosterone buzz in just a few months; but I can’t seem to turn on the TV without seeing the ‘Trivago guy’. He’s become an Internet fuss, has been featured in Rolling Stone, and Sarah Hampson in the Globe and Mail gave up a quarter page to discus whether or not he is being objectified. There is now a contest to determine his new wardrobe, and women are weighing in. What am I missing?

Well, I guess there is ‘something’ about him. Polar opposite to those cowboys! He’s the soft-spoken, rumpled guy who constantly needs his shirt tucked in. There has been lots of talk that he needs a belt! Really? He’s just that guy. I guess he does have that ilk of boyish charm that is totally appealing as long as you’re not married to him.

Maybe it’s the summer. Maybe it’s likened to a beach read. Okay, I admit, I watched The Bachelorette.

Am I a victim of pop culture? Yes, I suppose I am!  It’s the flip side of my coin. On one side I am swept away by literary fiction, captivated by the banter of indie films, and enlightened to spirituality; and on the other lured by a great leading man, a latte, and the ‘who wore it best’ column of In Style magazine.

Truth is, it took me years to find my inner coffee at Starbucks, the ‘grande low fat decaf latte’. And, now that I have given up coffee (and gluten… I am so on trend…), mint tea has become my staple at any coffee shop. I must say that I still prefer tea at a cozy, busy, coffee shop to a trendy tea café. Why is that? Well, even though I haven’t had coffee since February, I still dream of it, and love the aroma. There are just so many great scenes that play out at a coffee shop. It’s the essential movie moment in our voyeur lives, a kind of Meg Ryan minute, with that cute, covert smugness, if you know what I mean. I’m definitely a RomCom kind of girl.

But the Trivago guy….really? Don’t worry George Clooney.