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Controversy in ad-land! (And dad-land!)

According to FOX News, many, many people are upset about the depiction of fathers in commercials. You know those ads where fathers seem clueless or overwhelmed by their kids? Those are offensive.

Strangely, the author of the piece can only seem to find one person who will complain about this 'problem,' despite hinting vaguely that:

Daddies themselves have had a mixed reaction to seeing themselves portrayed more domestically in ads. Some aren't fazed by any of the commercials, even the dopey dad ones, and think the offended parties are overreacting. Others are happy to see that some ads have moved away from painting them as comically clueless.

Vincent DiCaro, spokesman for the National Fatherhood Initiative, tells FOX News: "There's still this myth of dads falling into the 3Ds' Dumb, Dangerous or Disaffected." (Nice: we thought the '3Ds' stood for Dissociative, Drinking, and Driving.) Who knew that all those episodes of sitcoms where the dad holds the baby with a poopy diaper aloft and says "I'm goin' in!" were reinforcing those dreaded '3Ds'?

Of course, since FOX News is 'Fair and Balanced,' they found someone to give a positive quote about these ads with some adorable bracketed context:

"I think it's a very positive development that Madison Avenue [known for advertising] is trying to portray fathers as real people instead of bumbling stereotypes," said USA Today media reporter Michael McCarthy, the father of two tots. "Dads need all the support they can get these days."


Yeah, support your dad. Mix 'im a drink and make it a double. He's got a long drive ahead of him.
Dad's in Charge in New TV Ads [FOX News]
Mr. Mom [IMDB]