The commercial doesn't seem like that big a deal to me however I do believe that fathers in america are being treated like second class parents. When you look at the huge discrepencies between how men and women are treated in terms of custody, parental leave etc. It becomes pretty obvious.
The fact that in this day and age men still have to pay alimoney is ridiculous.
The fact that all a woman has to do to get custody of kids is show up in court while a man has to prove the woman is an unfit mother is as well.
Women get maternity leave but a man can't get paternity leave.

I see no difference between the ideas in the Verizon ad and the idea -- popular in my youth -- that grown women were just "silly girls" who shouldn't be "burdened" with important things in life.

However, it seems to be acceptable in today's culture for the denigrating of men while avoiding denigrating of women -- just like it's perfectly okay to make jokes (and movies) about White men not being able to jump, yet wrong to portray Blacks as watermelon-stealing Stepin Fetchits.

I think that people should be treated with dignity, regardless of whether their race, sex, or class happens to be politically correct or incorrect this year. If I were a Verizon customer, I'd think seriously about changing providers.

I take personal offense to ads like this. As a father and primary caregiver of one VERY active 16month old I can attest to the pervasive cultural attitude that dads are worthless. My wife travels ALOT with her job and when I mention this to people the first thing they ask me is "who watches Zach when she is out of town?" This frustrates me greatly, but it is a very entrenched idea (especially in the U.S.) that dads can't cook (I do ALL the cooking in the house, if left to my wife we would live on mac and cheese), that dads don't spend quality time with their kids (I spend the majority of my time with Zach in productive, educational and fun ways) and that dads don't clean (I do the majority of the housework).
Put on top of this that I work full time and am in graduate school and I think I do pretty well with my son.
I know I'm not alone in this either, I know of at least one other Mod here at ATS that is the primary caregiver of his child.
Dad's count, dad's aren't stupid and dad's do care.

***jumps off soapbox***


[edit on 11-11-2004 by observer]

Well I just showed it to my roomate. He made a rather profound statement regarding the video:

'Dude, that girl is going to be hot in 15 years.'

There is nothing wrong with this video.

Who cares? Women spent their time being shown as second class humans, it's slowly becoming man's turn...

Big Deal....

I'm the father of a 12 year old girl... this ad doesn't bother me.

People should find something else, more productive to spend their time on...

Oh man come on people!

This ad doesn't suggest all dads are useless, just THIS one in the commercial. It could have been her mom, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa, mom's life partner - ANYONE. The point of the ad wasnt to bash fathers that care for their children, just people *like* the one shown. Did you get the joke? I bet you and everyone else did. Faster internet that you can network around makes everyone in the house happy.

Did you (you being those offended) consider that the ad also showed a dad that was 1) trying to help with school 2) was still involved with the family 3) wasnt being controlling and authoritarian with his family 4) respected his wife... and so on. I wish people would quit trying to be offended by everything they see. It takes effort to be so shaken up over a commercial for DSL.

Get a grip. Do laundry ads suggest boys are filthy pigs because they show a boys baseball jersey? No - just a situation in which laundry detergent might be helpful. This ad didnt say "Get DSL because all fathers are stupid and useless!" it said "Get DSL so people won't have to share one computer."

Ads target those people that are likely to buy the product and those ads are created to appeal to those people. This one was for families, and showed family situations that many have experienced, and found amusing. Laundry detergent ads are usually aimed at women because they buy it more often and care about the difference between spring breeze and mountain fresh while many men could care less. I don't think men or women are stupid enough to think that these commercials imply a womans place is in the home or imply that men are lazy and don't want to do laundry, they are just trying to get more bang for the buck by aiming the laundry ads at those who would be most receptive to the message.

Anyway, how come everyone isn't writing letters to that accented vacuum guy with the poor suction to commend him on his mens rights campaign? That's a groundbreaking concept if I ever saw one - a man vacuuming in a commercial? I think I should write a letter complaining that this ad proves women can't vacuum and are poor at problem solving. Oh wait.. thats right.. I don't care

I am the father of two little girls and a little boy and this ad does not bother me at all. There are more important things to worry about.

As a father who has brought up 2 teenage kids for the last 4 years alone, i find i have no problem with the video.

To me it shows that the kids are more computor literate than we are (dads)

After all, we have only just started with the computors, the kids are growing up with them.

I think the vid is funny.
just my opinion folks.

While I don't take personal offense to this commercial, I do feel that men in general are portrayed as bumbling fools in just about every form of media. Name one family sitcom where the father is good at taking care of the children and is not labled the clutz of the parenting duo. Or one commercial where the father is able to handle the responsibilites of rasing a family. Sure, almost everytime they show a father in that light, it's intended to be comical, but what does that do to the image of a modern father? You almost automatically assume that men are bumbling idiots when it comes to child raising. I'm a new father of a one yr old boy, and all of my co-workers and friends make the same assumption of me. I don't take offense to it becuase it's commonplace to think that, but that doesn't necessarily make it an accurate assumption, does it?

Originally posted by mpeake
While I don't take personal offense to this commercial, I do feel that men in general are portrayed as bumbling fools in just about every form of media. Name one family sitcom where the father is good at taking care of the children and is not labled the clutz of the parenting duo. Or one commercial where the father is able to handle the responsibilites of rasing a family. Sure, almost everytime they show a father in that light, it's intended to be comical, but what does that do to the image of a modern father? You almost automatically assume that men are bumbling idiots when it comes to child raising. I'm a new father of a one yr old boy, and all of my co-workers and friends make the same assumption of me. I don't take offense to it becuase it's commonplace to think that, but that doesn't necessarily make it an accurate assumption, does it?

Now I agree with that whole-heartedely. Think about 'Everybody Loves Ramond" in that show Ramond is a complete moron. I do think the world stereotypes men as incapable of child rearing. I personally cannot count the nights I walked the floors with my kids when they were babies while my good for nothing ex-wife slept.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the commercial. I've never cared for fathers being portrayed this way, but it doesn't seem that much different from your typical sitcom. And while I hope it isn't the norm, I can imagine it is the case is some households. People treat you how you let them.

Originally posted by mpeake
While I don't take personal offense to this commercial, I do feel that men in general are portrayed as bumbling fools in just about every form of media. Name one family sitcom where the father is good at taking care of the children and is not labled the clutz of the parenting duo. Or one commercial where the father is able to handle the responsibilites of rasing a family. Sure, almost everytime they show a father in that light, it's intended to be comical, but what does that do to the image of a modern father? You almost automatically assume that men are bumbling idiots when it comes to child raising. I'm a new father of a one yr old boy, and all of my co-workers and friends make the same assumption of me. I don't take offense to it becuase it's commonplace to think that, but that doesn't necessarily make it an accurate assumption, does it?

If you notice, there are many things happening slowly nowadays that suggest the roles are being reversed between men and women.

Such as the studies of women cheating on men more often without guilt. Or men now turning down sex more often than women. Males are even being born less often than females...

I wrote to one of the FCC charimen about this ad. It was a move in VERY poor taste by Verizon. Children should pick family first and foremost, I don't care who you are. Teenagers this day and age are so segregated from their immediate family that I hate to think what it will be like 20 years down the road when THEY have teenagers who do the same thing and then say "Oh well they'll grow out of it" when in reality they probably won't.

My family comes first, period.

I guess it hurts when the shoe is on the other foot.

Sorry, nothing wrong with that video.

I would suggest that the fathers who believe something is wrong with it and go out of their way to jump up and down may have some kind of "inferiority complex" me thinks.

Be a real man - get on with life and stop whinning about irrelevent wastes of time!

Originally posted by astoreth
Sorry, nothing wrong with that video.

I would suggest that the fathers who believe something is wrong with it and go out of their way to jump up and down may have some kind of "inferiority complex" me thinks.

Be a real man - get on with life and stop whinning about irrelevent wastes of time!

So if your children started to "reject" you, you would "be a real man and get on with life"?

I looked at both the ad and the site that was hosting it... SCAREEEEEY

There is nothing wrong with the ad but I guess men would find it more suitable if it were the husband dragging the mother away so the daughter could do her homework? As for TV and characterisation of men. TV is the spawn of satan, and I say this with half my tongue in cheek, it gives people completely the wrong idea of what live is like for others? "Friends", "The real life", "Will and Grace" , "Queer eye for a straight guy"... on what planet does any of this ever happen?