WOMEN chocaholics eat your hearts out - an avenue of pleasure is closing to you soon.

A new advertising campaign is to be launched on Monday which brands York-made Yorkie bars as chocolate for men only.

The slogan Not For Girls is to be used in the new campaign, replacing the traditional Yorkie trucker adverts.

In their publicity, Nestl says it wants to "take a stand for the British Bloke and reclaim some things in his life, starting with his chocolate".

Andrew Harris, Nestl's marketing director, says: "Most men these days feel as if the world is changing around them and it has become less and less politically correct to have anything that is only for males.

"It used to be that men had some areas of their life that were just for them and that was OK. No one cared and most people recognised that men needed places to be, in a simple sense, men.

"Yorkie feels that this is an important element of men's happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate just for men."

The campaign launch is, by coincidence, on April Fools' Day, but marketing executives have denied it is a joke and say the launch is a genuine one.

Nevertheless, women's groups could not bring themselves to take it seriously.

Mary Stephenson, director of the Fawcett Society, which seeks greater equality for women, said: "It is just silly at the end of the day - it's just a chocolate bar."

And Zarin Ainsworth, from the National Council for Women, said: "I don't think women need an excuse to buy chocolate and I don't think men go for male-only bars."

The new adverts will feature copy lines like Don't Feed The Birds, Not Available In Pink and King Size Not Queen Size.

Mr Harris said: "We're not saying Yorkie is Not For Girls to be offensive, but to let the British male know that we are for him alone. Women Yorkie eaters can switch to an Aero or Little Rolo if they like, Yorkie's feelings won't be hurt."

Updated: 11:52 Wednesday, March 27, 2002