Colin Farrell and Jude Law

London, June 26: British men are being told to be alert to a condition that could “put them on the fast track to extinction”.

Symptoms of the “illness” that has been dubbed “mantropy” include a penchant for pedicures, fruit smoothies and small dogs.

American Maxim, one of the biggest-selling men’s magazines in the world, has defined mantropy as “a silent killer which strikes men in the prime of life”.

The magazine has been urging American men to be macho rather than manicured and to indulge their passion for cars rather than clothes.

The campaign coincides with research that shows that men and women are being increasingly turned off by media images of well-groomed, feminine-looking men.

More than three-quarters of men questioned as part of the Leo Burnett Man Study believed that images of men in advertising are out of touch with reality.

Sixty per cent of the 2,000-strong sample said that their masculinity was defined by their status within the home and workplace, not by the way they looked.

This research reinforces the findings of a poll published in April which found that 90 per cent of women preferred a man who was “low-maintenance and easy-going”.

The Maxim campaign, which began as a light-hearted swipe at so-called “metrosexuality”, has received huge support from men. It has become so popular that there are even souvenir T-shirts and screensavers carrying slogans such as “don’t manicure the man” and “walk like a man”.

The magazine’s website says: “If you are male, you’re at risk. Mantropy knows no social or economic boundaries, attacking men of all races and tax brackets without warning.”

Greg Gutfeld, the editor of the British edition of Maxim, said the campaign had been sparked by fashion images of hairless men. “It’s that sort of thing which is driving normal men crazy,” he said. “I personally think television and pubs are the best inoculation against this sort of thing.”

The campaign is good news for macho heart-throbs, such as Colin Farrell, Bruce Willis and Russell Crowe, and is further proof that the appeal of metrosexual icons such as Jude Law and Orlando Bloom may be on the wane, even if it has yet to have an impact on some stars.