I love my mom. She is the reason for my tenacity, my stubbornness, my debatable charm and cuteness, my humble narcissism, and my Type A personality. She is the perfect mom.
And if you’re to believe the “World’s Toughest Job” video that has gone viral – rightfully so because it’s well done – you would think my mom is the only reason I am who I am today. Yet despite what today’s advertising says, Mrs. Michael wasn’t Sophie’s Choicing her family with her career and happiness. She had the help – and a lot of it – from a pretty fantastic and equally dedicated co-worker. His name is Dad.
But in commercials, it’s Mom who is the lone hero, overcoming difficult odds and a thick-headed husband to achieve greatness. During the Olympics, Proctor and Gamble reminded us over and over again that every gold medal was won because of an athlete’s mom getting up early for skating practice or putting a Band-Aid on a scraped knee. Oscar Meyer, to sell its no-preservatives meat, points out all the times Mom has to say ‘no’ to the children and their bumbling father. But how are my people portrayed in advertising? Swifter told us to Man Up, Fiber One tells us that men get our fiber from eating paper bags, and Clorox… c’mon, Clorox.
According to a Jacobs Media “Marketing to Men” survey, 59.1% of men considered themselves either the sole or key decision-maker in the household, compared with 55.7% of women.
So why do advertisers continue to praise Mom (which they deserve) while the perception of dads in commercials hasn’t progressed past Mr. Mom or Uncle Buck.
Where is our due? We’re great parents too, so where is the dadvertising? When do we get a commercial during the Olympics that talks about how, that time I wore a princess crown and slow danced with you to the Frozen soundtrack, that’s why you took home gold in figure skating.
My dad can do anything. He makes the best grilled cheese sandwich on record. When we were kids, he worked nights while getting his degree during the day. He coached our baseball teams, taught us to ride bikes, did the dishes every night, taught us to respect women and be there for our children, taught me how to punch without breaking my thumb, and was (still is) the funniest guy in the room.
But it’s Mom, we’re told, who has the thankless job, who works 135 hours a week, who has no time to sleep and needs degrees in finance and culinary arts.
As my crow’s feet will attest, I’m not exactly sleeping 10 hours a night.
So where’s the campaign focused on how much Dad does for the family? We get up at 2 a.m. to feed a newborn. We spend the night in the hospital with a sick kid. And you best believe we’re doing laundry and cleaning pots and pans. In some cases (cough, mine, cough), we do more than our wives in these “traditional” women and nurturing roles.
My mom is a great mom. Ditto my wife. And they deserve kudos for their role in raising the family. But they’re not alone and never have been. We are not Al Bundy or Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor. We’re not grunting over power tools or feeding our children ice cream for breakfast when mom is out of town.
We’re husbands. We’re fathers. And we love both of those jobs. Sometimes they’re hard. Mostly they’re awesome. It’d be nice if advertisers took note of that once and awhile.
Photo Credit: Google Images
