Agency Chief tells Mums to get off Facebook and play with their kids?!

[Cornflakemum]

"Gerry Graf thinks the Internet is getting a little out of hand. So, the longtime TBWA\Chiat\Day and Saatchi & Saatchi creative director, who recently opened his own agency, Barton F. Graf 9000, whipped up the video below called "The Log Off," encouraging moms everywhere to put down the Facebook and play with their kids instead. "

Check out the YouTube video here

Whilst I understand the sentiment, why just MUMS?? ] anger

What about all the Dads on their ipads and blackberrys all weekends?

(Clearly designed to be controversial and drum up support for his new agency, but I bet it will backfire spectacularly!)

snigger at Barton F. Graf 9000

Yes- I smirked at that too!

Who?

Yeah - the little wimmin are just doing the internet shoppping (to save time with the kids later), organising to meet up with friends (and the kids) over the weekend, checking out what their teenagers are doing online ... etc etc

I don't normally get riled by this sort of thing, but I do find the 'talk to the hand thing' very offensive. It's a cheap trick for PR purposes....

Who is he?

Can't dads log off Facebook first and interact with their kids more? Mums have been interacting with their DCs for millenia so surely it must be the Dads turn now?

Cheap PR trick indeed. How about a campaign telling men to stop 'phonesitting' - term my DH has coined for those dads you see at the park or soft play but who have their iPhones either clamped to their ear or are playing games on them the whole time and never even glance in the kids' direction. Oh no... thought not. Hugely irritating stuff.

agency chief can fuck off

I don't even understand the sentiment (and wouldn't agree with a Dad version either). It's a load of chauvinstic, jumping on a bandwagon that's already disappeared round the corner - all for the sake of a bit of PR!

I used to work in advertising and this is classic creative without planning. It is not clever or strategic. The message it gives out is that this agency is great getting negative PR. Or will create some random ad that looks quite nice, but has no integrity or intelligence. Yes, sure, I am now going to entrust my brand to you.

Insult women to drum up support for your tedious and badly named ad agency.
Hang in a minute, hadn't this been done before?
Yawn.

Maybe when dads turn off the bl**dy football!

Daft wanker.

Talk to people our parents generations. How much suffering and missed opportunity there was purely due to mothers being isolated, misinformed and unsupported.

My MIL was well impressed with some of the things me and the kids did together while we visited her. Home made play dough(Internet recipe), you tube videos of volcanos, some crazy MN tips on home organisation, therapy online resources for DS, plan a day out, Dd likes to get involved with Internet shopping and menu planning.

Like anything, it can be overused and misused. However an arrogant self-important knob in an office can fuck right off with telling me how to orchestrate my home life.

"'phonesitting' - term my DH has coined for those dads you see at the park or soft play but who have their iPhones either clamped to their ear or are playing games on them the whole time and never even glance in the kids' direction"

excellent word, I shall be using that in future

If I wasn't on FB, I wouldn't have seen this :D

I spend most of my time playing with my Daughter, what I do when she's otherwise occupied is none of his or anyone elses business.
Wonder if his kids have Nannies?

excellent point Sylvanian.

I am a brilliant mother cos I learnt it off the internet.

where I also shop, get recipes, arrange birthday parties, find out how to get rid of mice, etc etc etc.

men (often) hate it when women are online because they know that sometimes we are rude about them on it. There has always been invective against women talking to each other.

I often get 'internet guilt' where I feel like I spend far too much time on the computer (to be fair some of that time is spent doing uni work which i'm currently avoiding doing) but my DS is only 6 months old and there's only a certain amount of stuff I can do to play with him.

I do like the term 'phonesitting' though!

I don't usually swear but he can f* right off with that idea. The interent has been my link to the outside world and has maintained my sanity on many an exhausting day with the DC.

has he been chatting to Garry Lace, do you htink?

love 'phonesitting' but I raise you 'green-screensitting' for the football/golf/cricket orphans and widows

Gerry Graf, for instance, is a twat.

pillock.

hope his agency crashes and burns through negative publicity.

ps i only MN, FB and Yahoo either when DS is at pre-school, after he is in bed, or like now when he has a little chum to play and they are having far too much fun upstairs being charging crashing robot dinosaurs to bother what i'm doing in the living room. When he wants/needs my attention, he gets it absolutely. Not that i feel the need to justify myself to a silly little man like him, but i feel its important to point out the ludicrousness of his assumptions. Makes an ass out of U indeed Mr Graf.

"has he been chatting to Garry Lace, do you htink?"

Aitch - exactly! Both dinosaur advertising men - who still haven't got it!

The world's moved on and they clearly haven't. Why didn't they launch campaigns against day time television? A far bigger parent time waster. It's because TV is where they get their revenue and the biggest threat to this revenue is the Internet (and social networking in particular).

Actually I agree with him. Yes dads need to get off whatever they are doing and take responsibility too, it's not fair that just mums are targeted, but there are some mums who never switch off the pc. They have their computers on all day and leave the kids in front of the telly for hours whilst they catch up on mumsnet.

I mean, a quick half hour during lunch or in the evening when there's nowt on the telly is fine. But if you are at home looking after kids, should you really be on the pc all day? It's like putting your feet up and watching Jeremy Kyle all day long whilst leaving the kids to their own devices. And yes Mumsnet does get a bit trashy at times, with posters almost like audience hecklers.

So this guy does have a point. However that point should be aired at all parents who find it easy to ignore their kids, not just mums.