No more chick food. Forget the quiche and tofu. And while you're at it, torch those tighty-whities and dump the minivans. Be a man, man. Eat meat!

That's the message of a new tongue-in-cheek commercial for Burger King's humongous Texas Double Whopper sandwich. It's just one of several new restaurant advertising campaigns that take a (depending on your viewpoint) humorously realistic or annoyingly sexist slant on an old debate: guy food versus girl food.

TGIFriday's and Hardee's have joined the meat-is-macho bandwagon: Friday's with its Meat Fanatics commercial in which a guy ordering the vegetable medley is razzed by his beef-eating buddies until he adds some sausage, and Hardee's with its 1,400-calorie Monster Thickburger, a sandwich Hardee's chief executive Andrew Puzder has called "not a burger for tree-huggers."

The 60-second Burger King spot — a spoof on '70s feminism — shows men marching down the street, burning their briefs, unfurling signs that say "Eat This Meat," dissing quiche and singing their new manthem, to the tune of Helen Reddy's 1972 hit, "I Am Woman": "I am man, I am incorrigible, and I'm way too hungry to settle for chick food."

The commercial culminates with a minivan tossed over a bridge and the voice-over slogan, "Eat like a man, man."

Critic Bob Garfield, who writes for Advertising Age, calls the BK commercial "self-deprecating and funny" and thinks it "touches on a human truth — men need gigantic quantities of food."

Garfield sees this whole guy-food trend as evidence that society has evolved beyond political correctness. "The PC thing has been notched back. We're free to belabor the obvious without fear of being branded sexist or retrograde," he says.

Well, not so fast. Fellow critic Barbara Lippert, who writes for Advertising Week, thinks the new manly food commercials are sexist and retrograde. "It's 'real men don't eat quiche.' It's a return to the '70s," she says.

The way she sees it, the ads are a backlash against "metrosexuals and back-waxing and (the film) 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin.' " They're aimed instead at "18-year-old stoner boys."

At least one restaurant chain agrees. McDonald's has taken the opposite tack with its artistic ads for its new Asian Salad.

The salad — with grilled chicken, mandarin oranges, edamame (soybeans), almonds, snow peas, greens and low-fat dressing — is specifically aimed at women. In the commercials, the salad unfurls as a multicolored flower, whirling into kaleidoscope arrangements and then cascading into a bowl. A slim young woman is seen delicately munching on a snow pea.

It's girly — and effective. "McDonald's has made huge strides in selling salads to women. (Salads have) turned their business around," Garfield says.

Advertising aimed solely at men — or women — is nothing new. For men, think Swanson's "Hungry Man" frozen TV dinners or Bud Light beer. For women, the list includes everything from yogurt to deodorant.

Today's commercials may take a more in-your-face attitude, notes Garfield, but it all hinges on the company's strategy.

"McDonald's wants to grow a new segment that hadn't been buying their product as much — women," he notes. "Burger King's strategy is to grow its biggest segment, young men, because they buy most of their burgers. They're not going to waste advertising dollars sending messages about large menu items to 50-year-old New York women."