Last month, Arm & Hammer ran a Mother’s Day promotion with wonderful prizes and accolades in thanks for the goodness of moms. And now here in the month of June, it appears no comparable campaign is in the works for dad.

The omission is glaring enough, but it goes beyond that of a contest.

In avoiding an equivalent promotion for fathers, Arm & Hammer is effectively declaring laundry to be a mother’s task – a dangerous proposition.

There’s no need to debate who really does laundry in a home (it varies depending on circumstances), or who it fell upon in past generations. There’s no need for one-sided media stories, or studies claiming who handled the brunt of it during the pandemic.

The fact is it’s 2021, and the equality-driven world of today places that responsibility on both spouses whether that’s one’s actual reality or not. Companies, media and the public wouldn’t dare suggest it’s a mother’s job to handle laundry. But it sure seems Arm & Hammer did.

And even if Arm & Hammer’s market research insists it’s mostly moms who buy their detergent, wouldn’t it look better if it didn’t acknowledge that through a promotion? It would be like Kraft running an ad that implies a woman’s place is in the kitchen. Those are fighting words, so why would Arm & Hammer even insinuate something similar?

Dads deserve the same honor for being superdads. They’ve done impossible juggling, too, and families count on them for everything.

How about surprising dads with the same experiences and prizes extended to moms? There’s still time, Arm & Hammer. Get it done and lighten some deserving dads’ loads.