All this 'kids and mums' in advertising, why don't men care?

[AnnieLobeseder]

We women, feminists especially, get quite rightly upset by all the 'mums and kids' advertising on the TV. How it's implied that women are the ones looking after every aspect of their children's lives. There's just been an ad on now for school uniforms, all about how kids and mums love them. Dads left completely out of the picture.

My DH is all equal opportunities, he grew up in a country with very little gender discrimination (well, in mainstream society anyway), probably better than here, we share all domestic stuff 50/50.

So I asked him if it bothered him that, according to adverts like that, he has no relevance nor interest in the lives of his children. He just shrugged and said it's only an advert, he does't care.

I doubt he's alone in his view. So why don't good, decent men, who are very much involved in their children's lives, care that they are written out of advertising as irrelevant?

I don't think it's because they don't get discriminated against elsewhere, are in a position of privilege as men etc etc. While the patriarchy favours men overall, it damages men who don't conform to the 'masculine norm', SAHDs etc. So I would imagine they would notice and object to being well, not so much misrepresented, as not represented at all.

Any thoughts? Perhaps I should ask Dadsnet!

Well, it pisses my DH off - he notices it more than me.

Good! Glad to hear it. If men get just as annoyed about the stereotyping BS as we do, we can double the number of annoyed people and maybe something might change.

Hope so. He's setting a good example to ds, at least (playing the long game!)

I think that 50/50 perenting comes with some priveliges that your not expecting, being an active dad with a OH who also works and has a career means that the kids are not your OH's department, she doesnt get the final discision on all matters. when i was a kid the home was my mums power-base and her discision was final right down to what shoes we wore that day.

However, in advertising it's all about what sells more, if making mums feel guilty sells more products than making them feel good you know which way they will go with their advertising .

My DS throws a sock at the TV every time those P&G sponsor ads comes on but that's because he thinks they owe me some money!

He hates the ads where the husbands are portrayed as too dumb to make household decisions.

The unfortunate thing is though that I think men equate those ads of mother = wonderful parent / men are buffoons as being a product of feminism. Which is crazy cos as far as I know fems dislike them too for their gender stereotyping.

Annie, I think you should definitely ask dadsnet!

There was a lovely Sainsbury's ad a while back with a dad and son spending the day together (they bake a pie or something). It always made me cry

The P&G mums thing is just bullshit.

I have asked them....

Actually, the P&G mums thing wrt the Olympics is particularly bad given how much support Tom Daley's dad gave him.

Well, my dh was very pissed off by P&G. He drafted an email of complaint. Don't know if he sent it as I prefer if I don't push his feminist action.

By the way, we decided to mute all adverts when the kids are watching. It really stops them taking the shite in.

Ooh will watch with interest.

Oh good grief, that P& G one! We don't watch TV here, so I just saw it when we went to see Brave. Awful, awful, awful.

However, I'm going to stick my neck out and say it's a two-way street - if dads did more domestically (because the majority don't), then companies would market more to them. I'd like to say this kind of advertising is a hangover from the 1950s, but it is not - women still do much more housework than men, even when both partners work full-time, and according to a study I read recently, even when the woman earns more. So, advertising reflects reality as much as it creates it.

(and btw, messy, agree about the feminism comment, it is eff all to do with feminism, you could find those ideas in 1950s advertising)

Dadsnet is inflame right now, dont go there!
gin, worry and meow all got banned today. changling got warnd that he would get banned so he left.

Agree with summer and think its misguided to think of advertising as being guided by any kind of ideology. If 50% of men made the decision about what washing powder to buy then advertisers would have absolutely no problem changing their approach to how they advertise. What annoys me more is that every single ad made is focused-grouped to the nth degree - so women are telling advertisers this is what they want to see and what will make them buy their products.

I assumed that advertisers were a group of misogynist dicks.

Most men I know do at least their share of the housework.

Really Steve? What kind of ruckus is going on?

yama there's a myth (tbf, totally perpetuated by ball-swinging advertisers) that they make taste and social mores, but they don't, they follow the money.

Not saying they couldn't do more to challenge and change, of course they could do much much more.

It's too long a thread, I ' ll look later.

Annie, is it mostly down to the majority of people not consciously noticing ads anyway, especially now you can recOrd and fast forward tv? Even banned ads don't have that many complaints when the ASA publishes rulings - less than 500, often,