A subject near and dear to our hearts is the portrayal of dads and men as blithering idiots in television commercials. The trend has been around for a long time and now there’s an advocacy group speaking out against the practice. The group, Dad’s and Daughters which, in some circles, could be construed to stand for something very different than healthy father/daughter relationships, is furious over a recent Verizon DSL ad which features a computer-clueless Dad trying to help his daughter with her homework online. In the ad, he gets shoed away by his wife as he looks over his daughter’s shoulders.
“It’s really outrageous,” said Joe Kelly, executive director of the national advocacy group Dads and Daughters. “It’s reflective of some deeply entrenched cultural attitudes – that fathers are second-class parents, that they’re not really necessary. To operate from the assumption that Dad is a dolt is harmful to fathers, harmful to children and harmful to mothers.” Of course the counter argument is that it’s simply a joke and advocacy groups like this one should just learn to have a sense of humor. Afterall, we’re just paying dues for all those years we gave women the bimbo treatment, right? Verizon has maintained a bit of a backbone following complaints. “All we can say at this point is we’re looking at it,” said Verizon spokesman John Bonomo.
“We take our feedback and customer comments quite seriously. We’re obviously dismayed that some customers find one of our commercials offensive.”
Verizon in running a similar spot for their phones which shows a Dad giving his two daughters new phones and saying, “Now we can all talk together” to which his daughters grin and groan until his wife pipes in and says “and it has “in” so you can talk to your friends as long as you want” getting a much more positive response from the daughters.
