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Who’s the one man in TV ads British men aspire to be like…..?

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Seven out of ten men think we’re stereotyped in the media and yet half of us still aspire to be like one particular man from the world of TV adverts. Can you guess who that man is?

As part of its first national audit of masculinity published on International Men’s Day last week, the male suicide prevention charity CALM asked men which male character from TV advertising they most relate to and aspire to—and the result may surprise you.

WAS IT THE LYNX MAN?

No, apparently most British men don’t buy the idea that wearing an overpowering deodorant will cause millions of scantily-clad women to come charging towards you. Only 7% of men said they relate to the man in the Lynx ad and only 4% aspire to be that man.

WHAT ABOUT THE FAT BLOKE WHO CAN’T PLAY FOOTBALL?

No, only 8% of men relate to the fat bloke in The Sun’s fantasy football adverts and just 5% aspire to be like him!

HOW ABOUT THIS GUCCI SEX SYMBOL?

Would you be surprised to know that only 11% of men relate to this impossibly handsome man, though nearly one in five (19%) aspire to be like him.

IS DIY DAVE MORE OF A ROLE MODEL? 

More men (17%) could relate to the ordinary bloke in the B&Q advert though only 7% aspire to be like him.

WHO WANTS TO BE LIKE PAUL? 

http://youtu.be/VZlZ_6l8ul4

Yes apparently men want to be like the  overweight, beardy dad Paul Knowles who loves doing things for his family and puts “more effort into [their] holiday than most do at work. A total of 45% of men say they can relate to Paul and 51% say they aspire to be like him. As the advert says, “Paul, in our eyes, you’re already a winner”.

—Photo Credits: The Sun, B&Q and Gucci

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

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Why it’s time for advertisers to go father

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Tim Downs, Director at Aberfield Communication, makes the case for big brands to start taking dads seriously in their advertising campaigns.

As consumers we’ve been segmented, profiled, prodded, poked and questioned by brands and marketers in an effort to find new ways to inch us ever closer to the point of purchase. But there is one group that, until now, has remained steadfastly stuck in their stereotype and largely on the back burner when it comes to targeted marketing – Dads.

For many years the key target of the big brands has been Mum as the ‘gatekeeper’ to the family and, more importantly, the family finances. Alternatively, it has been through the kids and generating the constant and irresistible buzz of pester power.

Throughout all of this ‘Dads’ have often been portrayed as a bit part, relegated to their role as a Bank of Dad, Dad’s Taxis, the sentimental protector or a shed-dwelling comedy character.

Part of the reason for this is that there have been genuinely few territories where men are seen to exist in great enough numbers to warrant spending time and money, which makes those where they are crowded and expensive. How many agencies when asked about targeting men have arrived at the inevitable answers of sport, mates, and the pub?

But times have changed and roles have changed. And whilst there is greater diversity in marketing to men, so far there has been relatively little that has demonstrated an understanding of the changing role of Dad.

That is, until now.

Some of the world’s biggest brands have realised that the role of Dad has changed and, since the start of the global economic crisis, that the family dynamic has also changed. Just look at the recent Cannes Lions and some of the big winners. These brilliant ads by Coca Cola and Citroen demonstrate exactly this change, and they picked up the gold and silver awards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE-1DNrcls4

It’s no longer about Mum as the gatekeeper. Dad is playing an equally important role in the family purchasing decisions, as the chances are that both parents are out at work in order to make ends meet, or it’s increasingly a single parent household.

The weekly big shop has become a thing of the past, with parents taking shopping duties in turn depending on their work and family commitments on a given day.  And that means that Dad has some control over the weekly budget, family expenditure and where it is spent.

And this means that brands that can appeal and adapt to the needs and desires of dads, as well as mums, have a real opportunity to attract an incredibly loyal customer base – make it easy for Dad and he will be back.

So expect this to be the year that dads are front and centre in many campaigns, as they are variously feted and celebrated with mixed success.  I wouldn’t even be surprised to see him feature in a Christmas ad or two, John Lewis?

This article was previously published at Prolific North and is published here with the permission of Aberfield Communications. If you enjoyed this article, then find out what Daddy Blogger, John  Adams, is saying today about big brands who ignore and exclude dads. 

—Photo Credit: Coca Cola Life, Ser Padre campaign

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The way brands ignore and exclude dads is offensive

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In his regular column for insideMAN, UK daddy blogger, John Adams, explains how big brands ignore dads—and why it matters.

I’ve been blogging about parenthood and fathers’ issues for almost two years now. In that time I can honestly say I have seen increased recognition of the contribution fathers make as parents from retailers and manufacturers of parenting products.

I am, however, staggered at how wrong some organisations still get things. There’s a common bug bear you’ll hear from my dad blogging chums. It’s the arrival of a media release promoting an amazing, gender-neutral product that omits fathers altogether or addresses it solely to women. Interestingly, I find it’s often the bigger, more established brands that are guilty of this behaviour.

It really isn’t that uncommon to walk into a store specialising in parenting and childhood products and find all sorts of gender neutral toys on the shelves. You know the type of thing; building blocks for girls and boys, toys that are in red of purple instead of pink and blue. Look around the store, however, and you’ll see every publicity photo features images of mums and children without a dad anywhere.

I won’t name it, but one of the UK’s biggest retailers in this sector makes an amazing claim on its corporate website. According to its own bumph, it exists to provide; “products and services for mothers, mothers-to-be, babies and young children.” An odd statement for a store selling prams, car seats, changing mats, potties, baby baths and all manner of gender neutral items.

Not all brands are bad with dads 

Before I go on, let me just say some brands excel at engaging with dads and including fathers in their marketing. I want to make that point because some brands do, in fact, get the importance and relevance of fathers.

That said, a classic example of poor practice arrived in my inbox the other day. It was from a media release from a major, internationally recognised brand seeking to promote a new range of baby skincare products. The marketing bumph made no mention of fathers whatsoever and inferred that only mums deal with such issues.

When my first daughter was born, she developed a dry skin issue. I was the one to ask the health visitor what we should do about her skin, not my wife. My wife was completely committed to our child and would probably have dealt with it, but I felt this was my responsibility. After all, my other half was either attempting to breastfeed or hobbling round the house recovering from the physical trauma of a difficult birth. She wasn’t really in a state to walk to the local pharmacy so she could buy medication.

Defying gender stereotypes

I exaggerate slightly. The health visitor advised us to use olive oil and it worked perfectly. Just bear that in mind next time your new born develops dry skin. You don’t need to buy the latest product from a sexist, global pharmaceutical giant. If, however, my daughter had needed a more specialist treatment, well, it would have been me that ventured out the house to get it.

I quite often write about this kind of casual sexism towards fathers. Despite this, I can’t deny that, as part of a married couple, I am supported.

I am fortunate enough to be married to an amazing woman. I’m not the only one defying gender stereotypes in this relationship. My wife tells me she often gets strange looks and is made to feel like she’s letting her family down because, as a woman, she hasn’t sacrificed a career and continues to work full time.

Even though I’m a rarity for being male and fulfilling the main childcare and household management roles, I am not in any other kind of minority. When I speak up about the sexism I encounter as a dad that holds the babies, I’m often not thinking of myself. As I say, I have the support to deal with these situations.

Not all dads are straight and married

I’m usually thinking of the gay, adoptive dads, the widowers, the divorcee dads or dads that are non-resident for some reason. I have the greatest respect for all of these men (as I do single mothers regardless of their situation and sexuality).

I’m not saying these men require sympathy or special treatment, but they seem to be completely invisible to the big parenting brands. Even those brands that do engage with us dads tend to automatically assume we’re part of a happy, heterosexual couple. Widowers and divorcees generally don’t have that luxury.

As for gay couples, I’m staggered at how little attention parenting brands seem to pay to this demographic, especially since gay marriage was legalised. I recall once being in a room full of marketeers discussing the latest parenting trends and how to market products to mums and dads. I mentioned gay parents and there was shuffling of feet, downward glances and utter silence. The concept was clearly foreign to them.

When retailers and manufacturers pretend I don’t exist, I get annoyed. When I think of these other guys, I think the continued, mum-focused marketing of parenting products is nothing but offensive.

If you enjoyed this article, then find out what advertising expert, Tim Downs, has to say to big brands about advertising to fathers. 

More about the author:

John Adams is a married stay at home dad with two young daughters. He was previously a journalist and PR / communications professional but gave this up in 2010 to be a homemaker and look after the children.

In 2012 he launched a parenting blog focused on his experiences as a “man that holds the babies” called Dadbloguk.com  and he now writes for a variety of different publications in addition to his own blog.

Why not follow us now on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook?

—Photo from Oreo’s “The Biscuit Whisper” by Draft FCB

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Early Learning Centre apologises for sexist tweet ridiculing dads

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The Early Learning Centre (ELC), a UK-based chain of toyshops, courted controversy yesterday by choosing to insult one of its main groups of customers—Dads!

In a poorly considered attempt at corporate humour, the retailer, which operates around 300 stores in 20 countries, shared a branded meme on Twitter and Facebook suggesting that the only role that dads play in childcare is telling their kids where mum is.

Fathers across the UK reacted angrily to the suggestion that mums face a long list of demands from their kids (eg “I’m hungry, “I’m cold”, “she hit me”, “can I have?” etc) while the only demand that dads have to deal with is: “where’s Mum?”.

Sexist, insulting and stereotypical

Tom, a father of two and primary school teacher from Worcestershire, who writes the blog Daddy Daydream, described the meme as: “very, very insulting to all those Dads who look after their families.”

“I work full time but I do try to do as much with my children as I can,” he said. “There is still a lot of people out there who are unaware of the changes that are taking place in the roles of parents. I am just shocked that of all people to hold these old fashioned opinions that the ELC would be one of them.”

Another blogger, Al Jones of The Dad Network (cos dads have babies too) described the Early Learning Centre’s internet meme as “sexist, insulting and stereotypical”.

“It’s a public display of discriminative stereotyping when (a lot) of dads are doing their best for their children,” he said. “My issue is that it makes implications that dads can’t be arsed and just point their children to their mum. That just isn’t the case anymore, and until things like this are stopped, we’ll continue to have Batman and Robin climbing the houses of parliament. It’s an ongoing uphill battle to promote the importance of the role of fathers within family life when massive corporations make two clicks and spread these kind of things all over the web”.

“We are truly sorry!”

According to the campaign group Fathers 4 Justice (F4J), the Early Learning Centre responded to complaints by removing the post and issuing he following apology:

“We truly are sorry and can assure you that it wasn’t our intention to cause any upset. The post has now been removed.”

F4J Campaign Director Nadine O’Connor said, “We welcome the swift apology by the Early Learning Centre and the removal of the offending post.”

“We hope the real lesson ELC will learn is that fathers are not there to be denigrated, but to be valued in the lives of their children. This should be reflected in future social media posts and advertising by the Early Learning Centre.”

 Dads aren’t just support staff

This isn’t first example of a large brand insulting fathers. Earlier this year Clinton Cards donated £500 to the ManKind charity for male victims of domestic violence to atone for their Director, Tim Fairs, referring to dads as “support staff” in the run up to Fathers’ Day. In another case, Huggies was forced to pull a TV ad that ridiculed dads after receiving a barrage of complaints from mums and dads.

According to a survey by Netmums,nine out of ten parents now think that TV dads do not reflect the contribution that fathers make to family life in the real world. Three out of ten went further and said the way dads are portrayed in the media is a “subtle form of discrimination”.

On a positive note, some brands like Cheerios and McDonald’s have recently been praised for promoting positive images of fatherhood in their tv advertising.

If you spot an advert that’s sexist against men or ridicules fathers (or an advert about dads that deserves to be celebrated) please let us know in the comments section or email insideMANeditor@gmail.com.

—Picture discredit: Early Learning Centre

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—Picture Credit: McDonalds 2014

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

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Finally a British advert to make us proud of dads, if you’ve got a heart you’ll love this

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Are British advertisers finally starting to treat dads with the respect they deserve?

Last year a survey by Netmums revealed that nine out of ten parents said the way fathers appear on television bears no relation to their real-life contribution to family life and three out of ten said the way dads are portrayed in the media is a “subtle form of discrimination” .

Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard said: “The type of jokes aimed at dads would be banned if they were aimed at women, ethnic minorities or religious groups” and Jan Moir at The Daily Mail complained that “the insidious message that men are witless and pointless, mere playthings to be stamped on by the entire family is broadcast over and over again”.

So is the new ad from McDonald’s—famously associated with the separated “McDad” who has nowhere to entertain kids at the weekend so takes them for a burger—a sign that British advertisers are starting to take dads seriously?

It’s a tender, low-key advert that shows how Ronald McDonald House Charities provide free home-from-home accommodation for dads (and mums) with a child in hospital. The whole theme of the ad is the importance of children in hospital having something familiar and reassuring close by, in this the thing the child finds most comforting is “dad’s voice”.

It’s a beautiful, simple ad that makes dads proud. If you’ve got a heart and care about dads then we recommend you watch it and judge for yourself.

http://youtu.be/GEpwdzbVZMM

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—Picture Credit: McDonalds 2014

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