I was alarmed to read criticism of a new Clorox bleach ad launched in the United States.
In an attempt to have a bit of fun – and make the most of social media's role in all advertising campaigns as is the norm these days – they hired a writer to come up with something amusing. The result was a blog post called "6 Mistakes New Dad's Make", which the company promoted on its site and through Facebook.
But when a bunch of daddy bloggers caught sight of it, all hell broke loose.
See it for yourself. Do you find it offensive?
Image courtesy of daddydoctrines.com
The reason there's been such a huge backlash against Clorox is because the post is based on the premise that most new dads are hopeless. Let me assure you that new mums make most of these 'mistakes' too.
But that's not the point.
Dads are more involved in their children's lives than ever before. Like all new parents, they are doing their best and need support, not ridicule. No parent wants to be labelled as having made mistakes or being a bad parent.
So it's hardly surprising that daddy bloggers let rip.
Josh Levis of Daddy Doctrines commented, "New dads give our kids dirty food and Play-Doh to spread all over their faces while watching "Kardashians," then put them in backward summer clothes in freezing weather, oblivious to their cries en route to a poetry slam. But you can't blame us, because of our perpetually beer-soaked state and canine-level motor skills."
Chris Routly of Dads & Families said, "Too far within the 1st sentence. Can I suggest 'appreciating dads' is better shown by POLICY of no dumb dad stuff at all?"