I’m sure you’ve all seen the P&G (Procter & Gamble) commercials in the Winter Olympics on NBC. “Proud Sponsor of Moms” with all these touching stories from Olympians telling how their moms were so wonderful and supportive. How lovely. I’m sure their dads had nothing to do with their support and those images of dads cheering at the Olympics are just a rare exception.
NOT. It may be a surprise to P&G but dads are half the equation. Moms wouldn’t be moms without dads. And, these days dads are more and more involved in their kid’s lives. The playing field may not be level but for P&G to perpetuate this stereotype of sacrificing-martyr-moms with so little mention of dads is just bad form and foolish advertising. Perhaps they should wash their commercials in some Tide?
Since I’ve been writing about being a dad I’ve witnessed a wonderful turn-around in all media towards the portrayal of dads. Many big companies GET IT and have included dads in their marketing, recognizing that dads and men, for that matter, spend money too. We also do the wash and shop at Target, Walmart, and use lots of P&G products. Even Hollywood occasionally portrays dads in a positive light now and then.
Those companies that are inclusive of dads are truly being smart. They get the moms anyway and they don’t alienate the dads.
My own social media life is prime evidence of how reaching men always reaches women. My “A Dad’s Point-of-View” Facebook Page has over 5,000 “likes.” I do NO marketing to moms or women but nearly half of those likes are women. #DadChat is the biggest parent-centric tweet chat on twitter. Last year we got nearly two billion impressions (yes, that’s a ‘b’) and many Thursday evenings, half or MORE of our participants are women.
So P&G, why don’t you get smart? Include the dads and you’ll keep the moms. Continue highlighting the moms and you lose us dads.
