Gerber has an unfortunate history of excluding dads in its direct mail pieces, on its website, and in its My program. But things could be improving – that looks like a man’s hand feeding the baby on its website.
And a recent magazine actually acknowledges that the featured baby is a “him,” a possible future dad that will eventually be disregarded by the very company using his likeness to sell its products.
It’s another piece of a portfolio that’s confusing and erratic.
Just look at the front page of Gerber’s website as it stands today. If you’re a dad and reading the left side of the page, it exclaims, “We’re in this together.” But glance to the right and you find a site that indicates it’s only “For mom.”
(sigh)
However, to top it off – at least for our staff – Gerber has blocked us from following its company on Twitter.
Now, Twitter blocking certainly has its place in life, but to prevent one entity from communicating with another? Why?
The words close-minded and censorship come to mind.
Hey Gerber, we’re only trying to help. Factual proof created by your very own marketing team indicates you have a practice of excluding dads, and that’s wrong.
Dads buy your products. Dads care for children. Dads count too.
We’d love to chat, but it’s kind of hard to do that right now. Drop us a note.
Just some food for thought.
The reason I started blogging was because when I decided to be a stay at home dad it was hard to find support. Playgrounds are mommy play dates. Dance classes are dad sits in the corner because the moms are uncomfortable. You would think that they would want to welcome us in. If they truly have a love for kids how do you exclude dad? Just my thoughts. Great post and opening up my eyes to them.
I must be the exception to the rule. At toddler groups I would be the weird mum in the corner ignoring other mums/avoiding eye contact. They can be so competitive I just couldn’t bear them. But if a lone dad turned up I would make a beeline for him and make him feel welcome because I could see he felt like a loner (nothing flirty or anything like that, I just find men more interesting to talk to and less judgemental)