COMBOS(R) Brand Releases Manliest Cities

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COMBOS(R) Brand Releases Manliest Cities in America Rankings With Nashville at Top and New York at Bottom

To Launch Its Ultimate Man Zone Sweepstakes, COMBOS(R) - Man's Favorite Cheese-Filled Snack - Partners with the Expert Behind Multiple Best Places Rankings to Reveal 'America's Manliest Cities'

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J., March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Step aside men of Motown, Sin City and the Big Apple. Nashville now ranks as the manliest city in America. Mars Snackfood US announced today the release of "America's Manliest Cities" - a study commissioned by COMBOS(R) Brand in partnership with Bert Sperling, the research expert behind the popular "Best Places to Live" studies.

Via the "America's Manliest Cities" study, COMBOS(R) - the hearty, pretzel and cracker snack made with real cheese - examines what makes a city manly and then ranks 50 major metropolitan areas using criteria such as number of professional major league sports teams, popularity of tools and hardware and frequency of monster truck rallies. Cities also lose ranking points for emasculating characteristics like the abundance of home furnishing stores, high minivan sales and subscription rates to beauty magazines.

The manliest ranking comes as COMBOS(R) launches its Ultimate Man Zone Sweepstakes, an opportunity for guys to improve their favorite hangouts and win prize packages to upgrade their tailgating, grilling, home theater or gaming "zones." And also thanks to COMBOS(R), women now know where to find the manliest men around.

"As the ultimate hearty snack, COMBOS(R) created the Ultimate Man Zone Sweepstakes to give guys the opportunities to improve their favorite hangouts," said Craig Hall, general manager, Mars Snackfood US. "Through our COMBOS(R) 'America's Manliest Cities' study, we want to let guys know where their hometowns stack up against their brethren coast-to-coast when it comes to manliest."

Manly Study Highlights

Nashville is the Mecca of manliness. With its high number of NASCAR enthusiasts, popularity of hunting and fishing and concentration of BBQ restaurants, the Music City stands alone atop the mountain of manliness.

Despite high ratings in the "bowling" category, New York City ranks 50th out of 50 in the study due to low scores in manly indicators such as "fishing," "home improvement" and "drag racing."

If you're in the Midwest and looking to enjoy a game with a cold beverage, look no farther than St. Louis, which has the highest concentration of sports bars in the country.

Grand Rapids, Mich. has more monster truck rallies, per capita, than any other U.S. city.

Philadelphia and Chicago, with low scores in the "hunting" category fail to crack the top 25 (ranked 30th and 46th respectively).

The men of Oklahoma City know how to snack with gusto. Their city owns the highest purchase rate of salty snacks, such as COMBOS(R).

Got chainsaws? What about hammers and power drills? The men of New Orleans do. The "Big Easy" boasts more hardware stores per capita than any other U.S. city.

The Manly Methodology*

The rankings were determined using 50 of the largest metropolitan areas as defined by the United States Census Bureau, which includes a central city and the surrounding county (or counties).

Each metro area received a manliness rating between 0 and 100 based on how well it performed in each of the study's manly categories. Factors used to determine the manliest city rankings included the number of U.S.-made cars driven in the city, number of sports bars and BBQ restaurants, number of home improvement and hardware stores as well as manly salty snacks consumption. All data was adjusted by the current population of the cities to arrive at "per capita" figures, providing an accurate comparison between cities of varying sizes.

"America's Manliest Cities"

Nashville, Tenn.
Charlotte, N.C.
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Denver, Colo.
St. Louis, Mo.
Columbus, Ohio
Kansas City, Mo.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Toledo, Ohio
Memphis, Tenn.
Richmond, Va.
Columbia, S.C.
Orlando, Fla.
Dayton, Ohio
Salt Lake City, Utah
Milwaukee, Wis.
Minneapolis, Minn.
Cleveland, Ohio
Detroit, Mich.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Phoenix, Ariz.
Birmingham, Ala.
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Tampa, Fla.
Harrisburg, Pa.
New Orleans, La.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Louisville, Ky.
Atlanta, Ga.
Providence, R.I.
Dallas, Texas
Buffalo, N.Y.
Rochester, N.Y.
Baltimore, Md.
Boston, Mass.
Houston, Texas
Seattle, Wash.
Sacramento, Calif.
Miami, Fla.
San Diego, Calif.
Oakland, Calif.
Washington, District of Columbia
Chicago, Ill.
Portland, Ore.
San Francisco, Calif.
Los Angeles, Calif.
New York, N.Y.

The Ultimate Man Zone Sweepstakes

While it's too late for men to raise their city's manliness ranking this year, men from every city still have the chance to raise the level of their man gear by entering the COMBOS(R) Ultimate Man Zone Sweepstakes at www.COMBOS.com. The entry deadline is May 31, 2009.

Fueling American Manliness Across the Country

COMBOS(R) - the "Official Cheese-Filled Snack of NASCAR" - is road tripping around the U.S., stopping at NASCAR races and other man-friendly sporting events encouraging men to enter for a chance to win one of the Ultimate Man Zone packages.

The Ultimate Man Zone mobile tour makes stops in Daytona, Fla.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Orlando, Fla.; Atlanta, Ga.; Bristol, Conn.; Martinsville, Va.; Baltimore, Md.; Talladega, Ala.; Richmond, Va.; Darlington, S.C.; Concord, N.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Dover, Del.

A complete schedule of the Ultimate Man Zone tour can be found at www.COMBOS.com, as well as additional info on COMBOS(R) and the Ultimate Man Zone Sweepstakes.

About Mars Snackfood US:

Mars Snackfood US is the United States snack operations of Mars North America. With more than $7 billion in annual sales in the United States, Mars North America includes food, snack and pet care segments, which are a symbol of excellence for quality brands. Headquartered in Mount Olive, N.J., Mars North America employs more than 12,000 associates in the United States, with 54 facilities nationwide. Mars Snackfood US, headquartered in Hackettstown, N.J., includes some of the world's favorite brands such as DOVE(R) Brand Chocolate, M&M'S(R) Brand, MILKY WAY(R) Brand , SNICKERS(R) Brand, 3 MUSKETEERS(R) Brand, TWIX(R) Brand and more. Additional popular brands in the petcare and food segments for Mars North America include UNCLE BEN'S(R) Brand, PEDIGREE(R) Brand Food for Dogs, and WHISKAS(R) Brand Food for Cats. Please visit www.mars.com.

* For detailed methodology and rankings on each of the factors in the Combos(R) "America's Manliest Cities" study, please request a copy of the extended "Manliest Cities" rankings broken down by factor.

Website: http://www.mars.com/