Dads in the media

Categories: Fathers

Dads are represented as dumb and dopey as a source of humor.

Good evening my names Charli Paine and welcome to Media Watch, tonight we will be discussing the issue of dumb dads in the media. Have you noticed an increase in ads featuring dads?  While some ads kindly show the real bond and father figure they are, for example the Nissan's 2015 Super Bowl commercial, many others cast dads as fumbling idiots who desperately need to be saved from their stupidity by their children, spouses, or anyone else with an ounce of common sense.

One such ad is "Doritos Princess" commercial. In the ad, the dad is eagerly about to leave the house to go to a footy game with the guys.  As he walks past the daughter's bedroom she insists that "daddy" plays princess with her but obviously the guys are outside waiting for him and he just doesn't have the time until the daughter whips out a bag of Dorito's and instantly he's dressed head to toe in a princess outfit with makeup and all, the rest of the 30 second plot shows the dad making mistake after mistake for instance completely forgetting he was going out with the guys, making them wait outside, dressing up in the wife's wedding dress and chomping down on the Dorito's making mess everywhere but being completely clueless about anything.

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The guys unquestionably are also involved with the dress up and also drop everything once they've laid eyes on the Dorito's completely portraying dads as unfocused, easily distracted and one minded.

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The wife comes home to her largely inept spouse shopping in her hand once again showing that the dad is not responsible enough to do such thing and asks if that's her "wedding dress" he replies with "It could be". Some are probably thinking " It's just one add, so what?" There's lots of other advertisements and mass media that continuously uncover the flaws of all sorts of people, not just dads.  Plus, you might be just saying this because, "I bet you're a dad,".Well I can tell you I'm defiantly not a dad just viewer of the media who notices a problem spiralling out of control and making a bad reputation for all dads out there when sure there are dads out in the world like this, but this does not depict who a dad truly is.

This tendency to depict dads as dumb is a movement that many have recognized, in advertising as well as in mass media in general.  It's hard to think of other people groups who are as consistently ridiculed even when it comes to handling their own kids. Now Huggies diapers came out with an add that completely made fools out of the dads made them look clueless to handling their own children and as if they are not capable of "The toughest test imaginable" in their words. This commercial simply left a bunch of dads all in the same house to "The toughest test imaginable" of caring and looking after their own kids, now I am no parent but I would assume that as a new parent you quickly adapt to the tasks and responsibilities that come along with having that child and one of those tasks is simply learning how to put a diaper on but no some of these kids in the add look almost as if they are a year old but the fathers are yet still fumbling around, looking as if they don't know what to do and in desperate need of the mums help. Still, some people are probably thinking, "What's the big deal?"  Lots of television advertisements and tv shows are just simply meant to be funny.  It's hard to have humour if everyone in an advertisement or tv show is switched on and sensible.  While yes there's truth to this side of the story, depictions start to become detrimental when the same group of people, dads in this situation are always made to play the fool.  Such consistency of negative portrayals rise to the kingdom of stereotyping.

Most of us recognize the great harm that stereotypes have had on specific people groups over the years, as well as on our society as a whole, there is a very real reason to be concerned about what the time to come might hold if the next generation grows up assuming that dads are inherently incompetent. When it comes to cleaning a lot of the older generations have been raised to think that cleaning is the women's job and going to work and earning money is the man's job and this idea of ideology takes presidency in the Libman Mop Power Washing advertisement. Now of course it's such a simple product to use you'd think that anyone would be able to pick it up and use it but this is defiantly not the case, again the male is depicted as the idiot using a power water tool inside the house which would normally be used on a car or on a driveway externally but the adds inferring again that the male does not understand the simplicity of a simple mop, application of use and poses the women as the saviour. From a marketing perspective the product is again being pitched at the women because she is the only one that can show the male how to use it and the assumption is the male just does not get the simplicity of the product and aligning with gender roles.

Unfortunately dad-bashing ads seem to be very successful marketing.  They have clearly performed at quite an extreme level for the organisations that have used them otherwise it's unlikely that this tactic would be so common. It seems advisable to put forth to them a chapter of reprieve in succession for the pendulum to swing the other way and allow the dads out there to reclaim the respect they are worthy of. I believe that such repairing is not just important for them but for the well-being of our complete society.

Updated: Nov 01, 2022
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Dads in the media. (2019, Dec 18). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/dads-in-the-media-example-essay

Dads in the media essay
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