Television dads are as a rule bumbling dads, and now so-called dadvocates want to change that stereotype:
“We’re not the Peter Griffin or the Homer Simpson that we’re often portrayed as,” said Kevin Metzger, who runs the Dadvocate blog.
It’s often the chief gripe among the dads I interview about modern fatherhood.
David Holland, father of three, rails against “doofus dads” in ads. In his blog Blather. Wince. Repeat., he calls them “Madison Avenue’s go-to guy.”
During every commercial break, he says, he and his wife “try to see who can be the first one to spot the idiot husband or father.”
So, why is a mainstream-media outlet heralding this movement?
In a sign of their growing power, dads out to end the stereotype recently scored a knockout blow against a pair of TV ads.
A Huggies ad earlier this year said the company put its diapers “to the toughest test imaginable: dads, alone with their babies, in one house, for five days.”
What exactly made time with dad “the toughest test imaginable?” The ad showed dads making some unpleasant faces and ended with a woman saying, “good luck, babe.”
Another Huggies ad featured a group of dads not changing their babies’ diapers while watching an entire game through “double overtime.”
Angry dads and moms responded with complaints, saying fathers aren’t incompetent parents who leave their kids in dirty diapers.
Bumbling men are fine, but bumbling dads are off limits.