“Advertisers: Men Are Not Idiots” A message that is sadly necessary.
While the advertising industry’s negative depiction of fathers certainly isn’t the cause of fatherlessness, it is part of the problem. In a TV culture like ours, the fact that the only fathers one can see on TV are buffoonish (at best) does influence young people’s perceptions of fathers.
For young men, it makes it less likely they’ll aspire to be fathers, see their own value as fathers or, as Mr. Pitts explains, want to do the “hard but crucial work of being Dad.” For young women, it means they’ll be more likely to be misled into thinking that their children’s fathers aren’t important, that divorce or separation from them is no big deal, or that they should, as is the increasing trend, simply dispense with dad altogether and have children on their own.
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This is exactly the kind of thing that gets my blood boiling. I write about this all the time and it drives me up the wall.
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Ditto here. It’s not just fathers either, but MARRIED men who are either stupid, incompetent, immoral or something else equally bad. And the worst thing about it is that it’s not liberals or communists or any other typical LDS villains who are doing this, it’s good old conservative businessmen and women who are simply trying to sell products and services. Anyone for starting up a protest group?????
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Tony,
I agree but I take issue w/ calling businesses “conservative.” I think it’s a mischaracterization to call businesses conservtive in general. They just want to make money. They like the government to give them tax breaks whenever possible and regulate out competition whenever possible.
As you say they are out there to make money and for some reason the doofus dad meme has really caught on with them.
The good news is that a backlash has begun (finally) and Ad Age of all places published this article.
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