I’ve always been fascinated – more like surprised – by the use of mice in media, advertising and pop culture.

Most of us detest mice, and have little tolerance for them anywhere. Yes, I know some have them as pets, but for most people I suspect they’re filthy, disgusting and a nuisance. They harm plants and crops, can cause house damage and spread diseases with their feces.

Yet we have a culture that turns them into fun-loving, adorable creatures – and we love them!

Think about the cute mice from various movies: “Stuart Little,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “An American Tale,” “Shrek,” “Ratatouille” (I know they’re rats, but still).

There are TV shows and cartoons: “Mighty Mouse,” “Speedy Gonzales,” “Tom & Jerry.”

Even books: “Angelina Ballerina,” “Vera the Mouse,” “Poppy,” “Ralph Mouse,” “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

Of course, we can’t forget that black and white mouse upon which an empire-like movie, music and entertainment industry like no other is based.

It’s fascinating how in real life we’ll do anything to chase and destroy them, yet elsewhere we find them charming and sweet, often heroic. It’s impressive how the entertainment world has found a way to make us love something we should dislike.

And now, we have a mouse from the marketing and advertising world who has entered into rare territory, a realm only occupied by radical parent segregationists like Jif, Kix, Boppy and Gerber.

Take a look at this doozy of a commercial, which doesn’t hide a thing about to whom it’s speaking.

I love how the first time Chuck E. Cheese’s decides to let dad have some air time (halfway through the ad), he’s slightly fuzzy and unclear in the background. It’s like the play place chain is reluctantly acknowledging dad’s existence because it has to, but doesn’t actually want to give him much recognition.

In fact, the ad really doesn’t ever let us see the front of dad once. The only time he’s truly center stage (which is a stretch because he’s huddled behind his family) is at the cash register – when it’s time to pay – because dads are merely the providers, right Chuck E. Cheese’s? They’re not nurturers, they didn’t set up the fun day at the restaurant, and they certainly aren’t real parents, or you would have acknowledged them.

Every kid in the ad validates this, including one with a big, warm hug – only for mom.

Just in case my perceptive visual sensibilities are askew, where the possibility always exists that I’m off base on what my eyes see, there’s no mistaking how many times the ad utters the word mom: five.

Dad: zero.

Stop me if I’m wrong, Chuck E. Cheese’s, but from my perspective, the commercial is about as dad exclusionary as it gets. If this was some kind of Mother’s Day ad, that’s great, but it hardly indicates as such.

Further botching its lopsided marketing message is the completely out-of-place, mismatched tagline which seems to want it both ways when it exclaims, Where Awesome Parents Go. Talk about disconnect, the commercial’s one true consistent theme.

There are plenty of warm and engaging mice characters out there, but this ad makes the Chuck E. Cheese’s mascot look like what it really is: a vile rodent.

If all the mommy blogs suddenly disappeared at once, I think that would leave about 25 remaining blogs in all of cyberspace.

It seems they rule the blogosphere, and that’s great. There are a lot of good, fun mom-focused sites out there, and they each serve a purpose. Keep ‘em coming.

But then you have giggle.com, offering its Giggle Gab blog site, which we’ll get to in a moment.

First, a little background: Giggle is an online baby store, but as they say, it “isn’t just a baby store: it’s a new parent store.”

Cool, huh?

We applaud their clear focus and inclusionary word choice as a store/site for new parents.

But that’s about the last time they’ll address you dads as being real parents.

Over on their Giggle Gab blog, you can not only find a “City Mom” menu tab, but also articles like “5 Photos Every Mom Should Take During Baby’s First Year,” and “3 Tips for Making New Mom Friends & Setting Up the Perfect Play Date.”

If you dads weren’t turned off already and actually decided to click on their “Parent Talk” tab hoping to be spoken to there, you can forget that, too. There you’ll find a “Parent Talk” logo with the amusing description, “Get tips from the trenches with this information-packed blog from the authors of ‘The Rookie Mom’s Handbook’ and ‘Stuff Every Mom Should Know.'”

We’re not taking anything away from the authors or the books, which are probably excellent.

But by listing the names of those books which don’t speak to dads whatsoever, and doing so in a supposed “Parent Talk” section without any dad authors, it’s rather contradictory.

The best dad treatment we could find was an article posted five days before last year’s Father’s Day which helps last-minute moms skate through dad’s important day looking like they were prepared. Here’s the author’s opening:

“Before you panic about being unprepared for Father’s Day this Sunday, I want to remind you that you probably already have everything you need to celebrate. (Yes, really.) Think about it: you could brew some coffee, change all of today’s diapers, and whip up a real present, all in a few minutes.”

Whip up? I don’t want to discount these nice gesture ideas for a mom who’s had a busy week, but that seems like one seriously low-balled Father’s Day. Although the author goes on to give some other sweet ideas, but by then the damage was done.

Giggle.com has an impressive “as seen in” resume, but it’s still a bit of an unknown. If it really wants to be perceived as the go-to site for new parents, it should start acting like it and let dads in on their content.

Dads have feelings. Dads want to learn more about parenting. Dads care about their kids. Dads shop and buy things.

And, dads count too.