Last month on Mother’s Day, we overheard a young dad offering well wishes to a fellow friend, an elderly mom. The mom extended a kind “thanks” in return, and then shared with a smile:
“Mother’s Day, Father’s Day – they’re really the same thing. We should just have one ‘Parents Day,’ because parents raise kids together these days. Everyone has the same job. We’re all celebrating today, and I hope you have a great day, too!”
That’s some seriously wise knowledge from a veteran mother.
This mom was probably born about a decade after women finally gained the right to vote, so she’s seen changing societal roles and struggles for equality – all while being raised during a time when women didn’t typically work outside the home.
If any person has a reason to be set in her ways or subscribe to old-fashioned thinking, it would be her.
Yet instead, she has it all figured out. She gets it. She knows parenting isn’t a one-sided affair where one gender takes the lead, the other serves as an assistant or part-time helper. She knows dads are just as competent, instinctual, effective and equal as moms when it comes to parenting.
Why don’t companies and their marketing employees think the same?
Technically, there is a Parents’ Day in the United States, held on the fourth Sunday of July. However, that holiday hardly has the traction of its individual counterparts.
The truth is, we need holidays to celebrate each parental unit. Moms and dads are different, and they parent different – and we say celebrate that.
So, let’s keep things the way they are, but recognize that no holiday is more important than the other. We all have a father and a mother, whether we know them or not.
They deserve a day to be honored individually.
And they’re equal parents in every way.
If you monitor the advertising, marketing, branding and packaging of products and services as much as we do, you’ll find that one phrase seems to pop up more than any other: mom-trusted.
Whatever Medela is paying the people who handle its marketing and communications – it’s not enough.
So if there was ever a company that could be excused for playing the dad omission card (not that it’s ever right), Medela would be it. But they don’t stoop to that inappropriate level – they include dads on its 
But then you have some products which seem to bemuse our perception, products which have been marketed for so long, positioned in such a convincing way and aimed at a certain audience that we’ve come to believe its use was envisioned strictly for one gender.
A brief reflection upon its own history and founding – and a glance at its own latest ad – may encourage Boppy to return to its roots. Check out the bottom of this ad, where Boppy describes four of its product’s core uses, none of which have to do exclusively with moms (while physical breastfeeding does, general feeding – the word used in the ad – doesn’t).
When a child starts playing sports, parents will do everything imaginable to be a part of that child’s team. Whether it’s organizing a booster club, volunteering at the concession stand, providing snacks, coaching, or simply cheering loudly from the stands, parents love to get actively involved.
After more than a week of social media outcry concerning a misguided Father’s Day t-shirt, retailer Old Navy has finally pulled the item from its shelves. News of the removal was first reported by the National At-Home Dad Network.
Consumers everywhere have demanded a response from Old Navy, but so far it has remained markedly quiet. Attempts to reach an Old Navy spokesperson have gone unanswered.
Just when you think it’s safe in June – the month when dad gets his deserving due and eventual one day in the sun – retail company Old Navy drums up yet another t-shirt controversy to undermine dads in one cotton-polyester-blend swoop.
It’s a nice breath of fresh air when someone isn’t afraid to show a dad in a nurturing, or dare we say, snuggly position. But that’s exactly the case with Arm’s Reach, who does what’s unfortunately the unthinkable for so many baby product companies – placing a baby carrier on dad.
a less-than-flattering light while simultaneously making a mockery of fathers 
dadmarketing 