PC Cola: After 18 years, Reef decides to turn the other cheek on the beaches of Argentina.

It happens every summer in Buenos Aires. After weeks of holiday parties and triple-digit temperatures, something bizarre washes ashore that creates a scandal and makes national headlines. First fake Viagra, then a “modified” Dakar Rally truck, and now political correctness and metrosexuals on the beaches in the Province of Buenos Aires.

First the political correctness. California-based surf company Reef, which was founded 25 years ago by two brothers from Argentina, holds annual competitions on the beaches of South America searching for the girl with the best “Cola” (not a soft drink in Spanish). Clarin’s Victoria De Masi says testosterone-fueled attendees of this year’s “Cola Reef” event in Mar del Plata probably went home disappointed.

“After 18 years”, she writes, “Reef changed its marketing strategy. There were no wet t-shirts and, for the first time, they photographed the faces of the contestants.” Reef’s Director of Marketing, Ignacio Nahon, explained the new PC Cola approach, “We changed the concept of Miss Reef so it would not be so shocking for Argentine women.” He says the company is now looking for much more than just a pretty posterior. “Now we want something else, thin, refined, no breasts and no scandal.” (Full Story in Spanish)

While the women become less objectified, La Nacion’s Pablo Badia says more men on the beaches of Mar del Plata and Pinamar are taking the whole vanity thing to a Patrick Bateman level of skin care and self-indulgence. “Men on the Beach Runway, A Growing Trend” is the title of Badia’s piece which (disturbingly) chronicles the salads, sandals and skin creams preferred by this new species of BA-beach-bro. Not surprisingly, the comments below the article are priceless. (Full Story in Spanish)

For more information about beach destinations in Argentina and Uruguay, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.