Now, what could possibly be my problem with this commercial? Haven't I been trying for years to get companies to include dads, and to show dads in a positive light?Well, the easy way to find out what's wrong here is to look at Jif's other commercials and to count how many other dads appear in them.
I'll save you the trouble. It's zero. Well, one commercial has one faceless dad for less than a second.
What we do have here are moms making sandwiches, moms eating sandwiches, moms judging sandwich-making contests, and moms serving sandwiches to the men in their lives. And we have this young girl in the commercial giving a sandwich to her dad, obviously learning at a young age the difference between active males and helpful females.
I understand a company makes marketing decisions based on who actually buys a product. I understand more women buy Jif products than men do. But you went ahead and put an involved father in a commercial--so why do you still rely on lazy stereotypes? Why do you need to have the male building something while the female is only here as a helper--a server of sandwiches to her tired dad? Why do the other commercials include moms making sandwich, while the one dad in the commercial needs to be fed by his daughter? A truly involved dad can make a sandwich, you know.
Hey, it's their company and "Choosy Moms Choose Jif" is their well-researched slogan, I suppose. But neither dads nor parents of girls in general should applaud this commercial. If the company had a single dad making a single sandwich in any of these commercials, if father and daughter didn't act in accordance with gender stereotypes, if the Jif website acknowledged fatherhood in any other way than this dad-porn commercial that aims--let's face it--at mothers, then I would have applauded Jif for being inclusive.
Until then, next time you go to the grocery store, don't forget to ask your wife which peanut butter to get. You know men aren't capable of complex decisions like that.
I emailed Jif about my problems with this commercial, letting them know I planned to write about it on my blog. Other than an automatic "We truly value your comments" response, I got nothing.
