Are ads bad for dads? Traditionally, Madison Avenue has had plenty of fun at poor old dad’s expense. Commercials for all manner of products, from food to laundry detergent to automobiles, have cast fathers in the role of bumbling fool. Often it’s mom (aided by a particular product) who steps in to save the day.

Clay Nichols, co-founder of Dadlabs.com, a community site for dads, objects to the lack of appreciation that American culture shows for the evolving role of fathers. More dads are putting in more time caring for children and participating in the running of the household, Nichols says. Indeed, studies show that men now take care of about 40 percent of housework. They cook. They clean. They shop for groceries. They help care for children. They even hug their kids more than dads of previous generations, according to a study by the University of California, Riverside.

Yet, commercials from major companies such as McDonald’s, Volvo, and Best Buy still cast dad as the numbskull. It’s still a world where moms are good and dads are bad. “Maternity is an industry,” Nichols says. “Paternity is a lawsuit.”

A growing rumbling among U.S. consumers, however, suggests that this strategic communication tactic may have run its course. The dad backlash is gaining steam in various media outlets. On the Web, sites such as Fathersandhusbands.org have cropped up to keep track of integrated marketing messaging that hurts dads. Its latest finding: men in prime-time television are viewed far more often than women as sources of marital discontent, as inadequate parents, and as “corrupt” and “stupid,” by a factor of 11 to 1.

Los Angeles–based writer and radio host Glenn Sacks has been part of a grassroots campaign to ding automakers such as Volvo for their advertising that portrays dads as idiots. “I’m not trying to ‘sterilize’ anything,” writes Sacks in his blog (glennsacks.com/blog). “I’m instead trying to bring some balance to an industry [that] is very out of balance. I am absolutely not trying to eliminate all commercials [that] poke fun at men. I instead want everybody to get a roll in the barrel, not just men.”

Dissing dads may in fact be bad for business. There are approximately 66 million fathers in the U.S. today, and about half identify themselves as full-time dads. Over the next decade, experts predict, that number will grow by 10 percent as Generation Y moves into its prime parenthood years. Overall, men control more than $5.4 trillion in annual spending, according to the Rockville, Md.–based research firm Packaged Facts. Men ages 25–49 (prime fatherhood years) are responsible for more than 55 percent of that total.

Given the importance of this market segment, how can marketers successfully reach dads and build customer loyalty?

• Resist machismo. MSCO, a global marketing firm in Rye Brook, N.Y., developed an automotive kiosk designed to help car owners decipher the strange noises or warning lights displayed by increasingly complex cars. But instead of marketing the machine as a hot new tech toy, MSCO took a strong “new dad” approach. “We hired Mario Andretti as our spokesperson,” says Mark Stevens, CEO of MSCO and author of Your Marketing Sucks. “But his role in the campaign is not macho. His message is, ‘Protect your family — be the new man. “
• Use an approach that works with moms. “We opted to target men the way most companies in our industry target women — as gift buyers,” says Dwight Schultheis, vice president of business development for New York–based aMENity, which sells a line of shaving and skin care products for men. The result: an ad campaign that encouraged men to buy the products as gifts — for their sons. aMENity’s three-piece shaving kits, for example, include pamphlets about shaving techniques and proper skin care. “We are not about the bumbling dad,” Schultheis explains.
• Use technology. Many men still don’t enjoy the act of shopping; an online option is more appealing to them, says Peter Koeppel, president of Dallas-based Koeppel Direct. Products such as Oxyclean, Swivel Sweeper, and Little Giant have been popular with men in part because direct mail marketing now allows for a Web buying option as well as for an 800 number, which makes shopping more convenient.

Get with the Times
Many companies, unfortunately, still see the bumbling dad as a selling point. Best Buy, in its efforts to reach out to the Hispanic community, ran a humorous spot featuring a family struggling to educate Dad in the ways of the wired world. McDonald’s debuted its heartstring-tugger on the Oscar telecast last spring. The ad features a global cast of children calling excitedly to their siblings. As the American child approaches his brother on the urban playground, he delivers the news: “Dad’s making dinner!” The ad concludes with dad unpacking McDonald’s take-out to cheers and hugs from joyous children.

Such imagery, marketing experts say, will change over the next decade as a new generation assumes the role of parents. These will be dads who grew up in the era of working women and shared parenting responsibilities. Their TV heroes will be the sensitive men of Friends and Brothers & Sisters, not Ward from Leave It to Beaver. “We still like to eat steak, drink beer, and watch football, but that’s not all we do,” MSCO’s Stevens says. “It’s not what drives our lives.”

Or their wallets.

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