A couple weeks ago I mentioned a few good examples of dads in ads—it’s nice to see realistic dads rather than just total buffoons. But apparently not everyone (in marketing) got the memo. I was alerted to Clorox’s short-lived social media campaign through the Dad Bloggers group on Facebook. I’ll save you the trouble and just tell you the 6 mistakes here:
- Forgetting to get your baby out of the rain.
- Putting on your baby’s clothes backwards.
- Letting your baby watch reality TV.
- Forgetting to wipe (the face).
- Letting the baby eat off the floor.
- Taking your baby to a casino, pool hall, etc.
Har, har, har. Each mistake was followed by a paragraph describing new dads as complete dolts who can’t figure out which end of the baby is up. The bit ended with the comment: “Hopefully, your new Dad will learn to exercise good judgment in time for baby 2.” There was also a little voting section where you could say whether these “tips” were good, funny, meant for moms, etc. Tellingly, the highest vote by far was “Ick.”
The comments section was filled with both dads and moms denouncing Clorox—did Clorox miss the big Huggies debacle? But at least they did have the sense to pull the page—it went mysteriously missing after several hours.
Hopefully, Clorox will learn to exercise good judgment in time for its next ad campaign.
Except that today they shared this gem on Facebook where dad, like a teenage boy (because apparently all men are) cannot wipe himself.
https://www.clorox.com/cleaning-and-laundry-tips/articles/6-stains-your-teen-makes-during-warm-months/
Even there Father’s Day post is condescending: http://www.clorox.com/cleaning-and-laundry-tips/articles/5-things-that-drive-dad-crazy/
And there add “Mom Will Never Know” makes dad to be another child that doesn’t want to get grounded again by mom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7rclLQC_T0o
One bad post is a mistake, but this seems to me to be a trend.
The sad thing is that this mentality is so pervasive. My husband can’t even take our daughter to the grocery store alone without some ‘well-meaning’ person saying ‘oh no! Is Mom taking a day off? Don’t give her too many sweets!’ or some other ridiculous comment. He is a super involved dad. HE chose the breastpump ( I might add he had to exchange said pump four times because Avent makes pumps that don’t work straight out of the box!) I should use and then found some awesome flanges to make pumping easier when I was having a really hard time getting our baby to latch and breastfeed! When I told another mom this she laughed and said you wouldn’t catch her husband dead buying any ‘lady stuff’ like a breast pump. I bet he might if he was made to feel a part of the whole process. Or maybe I am very very lucky in having my husband but I honestly think men would be more into what is typically made to be ‘mom stuff’ if they weren’t treated like a child about it all the time. My husband is involved in all the parenting jobs and decisions and it infuriates me when anyone makes him feel like some big bumbling idiot who can’t (or doesn’t want to try to) take care of his own kid!