April 1, 2025

Dads and Baby Products: The Silent Exclusion

Walk into any baby store, scroll through parenting ads, or casually monitor activity in the baby industry, and you’ll notice a common theme: moms, moms, and more moms. From diaper commercials to stroller promotions, marketing for baby products overwhelmingly assumes that mothers are the primary (or sometimes only) buyer and user.

Sadly, fathers are largely left out of the conversation. This silent exclusion doesn’t just reinforce outdated stereotypes – it also ignores half of the parenting population and paying customers.

Marketing That Talks Only to Moms

Many brands still operate under the assumption that moms are the default caregivers. Product packaging, ad campaigns and influencer programs often use phrases like “mom-approved” or “designed for moms.” While there’s nothing wrong with celebrating motherhood, the exclusive focus on moms sends a clear message: dads aren’t expected to be involved in baby care.

Consider baby gear commercials – how often do you see a dad confidently installing a car seat, choosing a baby carrier, or reviewing the latest diaper brand? More often than not, if a dad appears at all, he’s either a passive background character or the goofy, well-meaning parent who fumbles through tasks that moms are shown handling effortlessly.

This approach ignores the reality of modern parenting. Dads today are involved, yet brands still act like they don’t exist.

Mommy’s Bliss and Brand Ambassadors

One glaring example of dad exclusion comes from the brand Mommy’s Bliss, which sells baby products like gripe water, probiotics and vitamins. The company runs an ambassador program to promote its products, but it explicitly names who it wants as its helpers – making it clear that dads need not apply.

This kind of messaging reinforces the unfair idea that baby care is a mother’s domain. It tells dads that their role in purchasing, using and endorsing baby products isn’t valued. Meanwhile, brands are missing out on an entire audience of engaged fathers who also make buying decisions and influence other parents.

Why This Matters (And Why Brands Should Care)

By ignoring dads, brands are not only reinforcing outdated gender roles, they’re also leaving money on the table. Studies show that fathers today are making more purchasing decisions for their children than ever before. According to a 2019 study by Nielsen, millennial dads spend an average of $2,300 more per year on child-related expenses than previous generations.

Yet, when dads walk down the baby aisle, they’re met with pink packaging, “made for moms” messaging, and influencer campaigns that assume only women are the decision-makers.

Brands that truly want to connect with modern families need to rethink their approach. Easy, small shifts can go a long way in making dads feel seen – and in turn, more likely to engage with and trust a brand.

Time for Brands to Step Up

The exclusion of dads from baby product marketing isn’t always intentional, but that doesn’t make it any less harmful. It perpetuates the idea that dads are secondary parents, reinforcing a cultural script that tells men they are merely “helpers” in childcare rather than equal partners.

If brands want to be truly inclusive, they need to stop treating fathers as an afterthought. It’s time for marketing to reflect what today’s parenting landscape actually looks like: dads changing diapers, wearing newborns in carriers, pushing strollers – and making buying decisions.

Are brands like Mommy’s Bliss ready to take action?

August 6, 2020

Driven By Discrimination

It must be a strange situation if you’re a dad and you choose this driving school in the Houston area.

From the outset, it’s labeling you a secondary parent and already making you feel less important.

momapproveddrivingschool

But it gets even more bizarre if you’re looking for adult courses. Imagine being a grown man and attending a driving school that your mom — er, wife? — has approved.

It’s disappointing to see professional drivers’ education offering an inclusive program with such an exclusionary name. After all, its website states that teens must complete a “mandatory 30 hours of parent-supervised in-car driving.”

If a dad is good enough to offer that parent supervision while driving, isn’t he good enough to be mentioned by name?

In a world that won’t stand for inequality and unfairness, shouldn’t this company be driven by principles that don’t ignore parents on the basis of gender?

It’s time for change.

January 17, 2017

Where are the dads in the Disney galaxy?

For all the positive mojo Disney cranks out on a regular basis, it appears to have a genuine problem with finding – how shall we say it – balance.

Last week a story circulated on the Internet titled, “Where Are the Moms in the Star Wars Galaxy?” The writer argued that while mothers do play a role in the Star Wars universe, they don’t receive as much thematic prominence as father-son/child relationships. It’s a thought-provoking piece with strong merit – highly recommended.

Then, just two days later, Disney Parks revealed the members of its 10^th annual Moms Panel – an online forum for everyday people to share helpful tips and vacation planning advice.

The problem is, the panel isn’t a representative sample of everyday people – it’s overwhelmingly comprised of only moms. Of course, this is not a bad thing, but the imbalance is; it’s important to remember that dads are part of families, and vacation planning involves them, because they too have plenty to share with potential travelers about the topic.

But Disney awkwardly placed a lone dad on this year’s Moms Panel, thereby disrespecting and ignoring his parental title and thus cutting last year’s dad total – if you can believe it – in half.

Its actions disregard fathers as fully competent, equal parents, much in the same vein that Jif Peanut Butter’s long-standing catchphrase excludes dads as dedicated customers.

We wrote about the Disney Parks Moms Panel last fall and received positive feedback from readers who also implored Disney to catch up with the modern world and to better represent what families mean today.

We realize that equality takes time, so we didn’t expect Disney to instantly even out the number of women and men on the panel, although doing so would rightfully provide a true representation of all parenting travel issues. However, we thoughtfully anticipated a name change in the spirit of authentic, modern parenting.

Unfortunately, Disney let us all down, because it’s not just dads that end up on the short end of the stick. It’s the kids and the spouses who deserve a vacation planned at least partly through a fatherly perspective. But they’ll hardly get that, because instead, dads are being treated like second-class parents who simply don’t matter.

Hilton also operates a similar travel panel with a comparable name – Hilton Mom Voyage – and it has a mere three dads among 30 panelists.

Echoing the words of the Star Wars column, dads deserve better.

The members of next year’s Disney panel will be announced soon enough, but why wait that long to properly rename the panel?

Disney, let’s make things right, because families are stronger – and vacations are more magical – when we’re united as parents.

April 28, 2014

If everybody else gets to write a list, we can too

Why bother?

Why would any company waste time marketing to dads?

Marketing to dads matters. Let us count the ways, and since lists seem to make the Internet go ‘round, here’s ours:

It’s not about who uses the card, but about everything before the credit card is swiped – Anybody can put a Star Wars t-shirt in a shopping cart, but more went into that decision than you think. What, or who, influenced it? Maybe it’s dad’s love of the movie franchise that rubbed off on their kids. Maybe it was a commercial the family saw while watching a hockey game together. Maybe it is dad’s influence on a certain store the family frequents. Maybe dad researched everything about the product online for the mom. Maybe dad simply looks good in the shirt. Any marketer can sit all day long in a store and prove that it was mom after mom who swiped that credit card in Target, but a wise researcher will investigate the whole story.
No matter how small the slice is on the pie chart, it’s still a slice, and it still tastes like pie – I heard a weathercaster once say, “Even though there’s a 70% chance of rain today, remember that there’s a 30% chance it won’t.” So, let’s say for example, that moms handle 70% of the purchasing. Is a company really doing to ignore that potential 30% of dads who buy stuff? Cereal makers do all the time, and if I was their CEO, I’d start looking for a new marketing team, and fast.
Isn’t equality a goal? – When you alienate someone and make them feel left out, you’re bound to really turn them off. What’s wrong with marketing to both mom and dad at the same time? Nothing! You’ll still have the mom in your good graces, and the dad will feel like he was included, too. The good baby websites, I’ve found, are the ones that use the word “parent” and have photos of the newborn baby with both mom and dad. Isn’t that a cool thing to see?
Loyalty is king – If you become friends with someone at work or school, that’s nice. If that friend invites you to their home, your friendship suddenly deepens, and you’ve formed a bond that makes you feel even more connected. You’ve become loyal to them. The same connection happens with retailers, and it means far more than customer satisfaction. Dads are loyal people. As author and speaker Jeffrey Gitomer once said, “Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.”
The Internet still is a game changer – Unless you’ve been living under a rock for say, the past 25 years, you’ve heard of the Internet. It’s a marvelous tool used to gather information fast from all around the globe. As far as I know, dads have used it to gather information, read and write reviews, and purchase things. Lots of things. Take the “zo” out of Amazon and you have “A man.”
Look no further than sports – If you don’t follow sports, check out the power of the NFL, NASCAR, or any other sports league, and you’ll find it dominated by dads who have an allegiance to athletes and their games like no other. It’s a gazillion dollar industry that continues to grow and expand with time.
Dads eat and buy cereal – I think June Cleaver gets a bum rap. Everyone likes to make her the poster child for old-fashioned, outdated behavior. Leave it to Beaver was a good show with wholesome characters, simply a product of its times. Cereal is notorious for neglecting dads. Kix is a product of its times too, but even a Beaver sequel in the ‘80s didn’t keep using the same formula – it updated for the times. Read our December 17, 2013 entry if you want to learn more about Kix’s useless and archaic orange box. It really isn’t the 1950s anymore, Kix, so hop on board the 2014 bus with the rest of us. If I was Doc Brown and I had some plutonium, I’d so throw you into a DeLorean and send you “Back to the”…well, you know where.
Credit card companies know better – Credit card companies know that their pocket-sized flat payment tools are used by dads, too. That’s why they have dudes in their ads. I’d even go as far to say that credit cards were inherently designed for dads: they’re lightweight and flat since dads don’t like to carry things; they have cool pictures on them; they’re durable; they’re largely free to get (dads like free things); even acquiring one is easy to do. Leave it to Jedi Master tough guy Mace Windu to set the record straight: men do indeed use credit cards as he asks the question to which he already knows the answer, “What’s in your wallet?” Dads carry wallets. Moms carry purses. Closed, the case is.
Dad, meet Internet; Internet, meet Dad – Dads and computers met a long time ago, and they realize how to use them. Even if dads don’t always make the final purchase, they’re surely reading about the product beforehand. They’re commenting on it. They’re reviewing it. And did you see that Amazon is starting an online grocery store? Frankly, dads are probably purchasing things more and more off the Internet, because every good marketer claims knows that dads don’t like to shop in stores, right? So, watch it marketers, because the slightest misstep and you’ll have more than one dadmarketing site broadcasting it to the world.
Step up right here and behold, the spectacle! – The way dads get dissed everywhere, it seems like marketers make them out to be some kind of mythical creature that doesn’t exist. In that vein, I have channeled my inner Dr. Seuss:

Dads move, dads think, they eat, they blink.

Dads stand, dads sit, they throw, they hit.

Dads run, dads fly, they drive, they buy.

Dads can do lots of things, you see.

So don’t deny their authority.