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Days Inn Canada Falls Short With New Dad Ad

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I have been a part of the online dad community for a little over two years now. In that time, I have learned to value my contributions to my family and have become a far better and more attentive father because of it. I have also become more aware of the way fathers tend to be portrayed in the media and have even been fortunate enough to be a part of a community that is striving to, and has succeeded in, changing the dumb dad stereotype. In fact, according to a recent extensive study by 8 Bit Dad’s, Zach Rosenberg, fathers are being portrayed in a more engaged and positive light, more and more every year.

Unlike my American counterparts, however, it is extremely rare for me to see a commercial where the dad is being portrayed in a negative light. That changed this week after I saw the new commercial from Days Inn Canada. The commercial shows a sad child sitting alone in his room, wishing his father was there with him to read his bedtime story. It then cuts to the father, who is excitedly lounging alone in his hotel room, and sings the line, “And on the brighter side, dad’s watching mixed martial arts”. It gets worse from there but this is about the point in the commercial where I checked out and thought of a million different scenarios they could have gone with that would have made this commercial a viral sensation. First and foremost, why not have the dad reading to the kid over the internet and showing the love that I know most dads feel for their children. That would have been something I would have been proud to get behind and shared immediately. It would have even been enough to get my future business, at least once. And look, I’m all for Me-Time, as we all need it, but mixing it in with the sad child just made it look like the dad was happier outside the house than in it.

Not that fatherhood has ever been the way that the Al Bundy’s of the world would have you believe, but things are different now than they used to be. For a father to be a more engaged member of the overall household and child raising duties is not the exception anymore, it’s the norm. I’m sure Days Inn Canada thought this was harmless fun and others may see this as me being a whiny dad, but I think it’s important for them to know that it’s okay to go against the stereotype and to create a new mold.

What are thoughts on the commercial? I know we all see things differently, so please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

All this said, I would love to invite Days Inn Canada to have a conversation with us dads, so we can talk about what our version of fatherhood looks like for future commercials. In the meantime, I invite you to take a look at how the face of fatherhood has changed in just the last 1000 days. Video is courtesy of the folks at the Dad 2.0 Summit.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. Check out these posts from Buzz Bishop from DadCamp and Justin Connors from Life in 140.

Sidney Crosby Tim Hortons

I Was In Tim Hortons’ New Commercial! Well, Almost…

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Thanks to Tim Hortons, I recently had the opportunity to do something that I would have never imagined possible. I was invited to attend the taping of their new commercial (linked below), where I had the chance to act as one of the cheering fans in the stands during a hockey game. The commercial starred Pittsburgh Penguins’ star and recently named Team Canada member, Sidney Crosby and it was incredibly cool to see him in action.

In planning this post, I wanted to share every single minute detail about my time at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, but I felt like I might be a little more excited about the day than you all would be. That said, I still wanted to share some of my observations of the event. First off, for anyone who has ever dreamed of a life in show business, let me tell you something. The amount of work that went into every shot you see in the commercial is beyond anything I could have imagined. Those skaters, including Crosby, must have jumped the boards about 50 times each in the 4 hours it took to record that scene. In fact, at one point in the commercial, you see a man lifting a young skater over the boards. Multiply that by 50…

One of the best parts of the experience, other than the unlimited amount of Tim Hortons coffee, was that I got to share it with two of my blogging friends in Sharon DeVellis & Shannon Mischuk, two women that I respect very much. Oh yeah, and when got to meet Sidney Crosby! We went in to this with no expectations as to what was going to happen, so when we were told that Crosby agreed to take some time out of his schedule for some one on one time with us, we were very excited. I have to point out that between Sharon, Shannon and their young sons, I think I was blushing the least as Sid chatted with us.

Overall, the experience was amazing and I can’t thank Tim Hortons enough for inviting me to be a part of it. I would also like to thank my good friend, CL Buchanan and her family, for serving me an amazing home cooked meal and also for taking me to the very first Tim Hortons location! Now, without further ado, here is the all new and very patriotic Tim Hortons commercial, starring Sidney Crosby. PS – Although you can’t see any of us in the actual commercial, I can assure you that we were there and that we were some of the best fake goal cheerers you will ever see!

Now it’s your turn to meet Sidney Crosby! Entering the contest is simple – Canadians can visit the #JumpTheBoards app on Tim Hortons Facebook page where you can enter daily until January 25, 2014. On the app, you can also watch and share Tim Hortons newest commercial to ‘fill’ the Tim’s virtual arena and help create the largest virtual audience for Canada’s favourite game.

Good Luck and thanks for reading!

Disclosure: While Tim Hortons didn’t pay me for this experience, they did cover my travel expenses to Hamilton. Also, I did get paid by the actors union, because of my amazing acting chops!

Lego Captures Fatherhood Beautifully

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For those new to the site, from time to time I like to feature commercials that portray fatherhood in a positive light. This tradition has actually resulted in one of my most inspirational moments as a blogger. This past week, I was introduced to a new commercial from LEGO® that captures everything I love about being a father, and I wanted to share it with you all.

The commercial is a simple yet very effective look at everything being a father means to me. LEGO® are the latest in a line of companies who have shifted the way they are marketing to families, specifically fathers. From Tide and Downy to Clorox and Dove Men+ Care, it seems like the days of the bumbling, useless dad are fading quickly and I’m excited to watch the new trend unfold.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this commercial and the new trend of the modern father being represented in a more caring and competent light.

How Canadian Tire Made One Family’s Wish Come True

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Canadian Tire

I believe very strongly in the power of giving. In the past few months, I have quietly started practicing a daily random act of kindness. It sometimes involves spending money but often is something as little as opening a door for someone or letting someone in line ahead of me. I never expect anything in return for any of this but I was lucky enough to be the recipient of some excellent news yesterday and I have to share it with you.

You may remember back in February, I posted an awesome commercial from Canadian Tire, that depicted a father and son going to the outdoor rink to skate and bond together. It was, and still is, my favourite commercial of all time. One of the commenters on the post mentioned that they hadn’t been able to afford skates for their boys but hoped it would happen someday. I’ve deleted that portion of their comment for their privacy.

The post faded into obscurity, as most blog posts do, until yesterday when I received an email from the people at Canadian Tire. They thanked me for sharing their commercial and asked for the contact info of the above noted commenter because they wanted to outfit her family with new skates. I’d be lying at this point if I said my eyes were completely dry after reading through their email and they didn’t get any dryer after speaking to the recipient of the gift. If I ever questioned what the ROI of sharing other people’s amazing content was, Canadian Tire answered it in incredible fashion.

I was already impressed with Canadian Tire for the way they portrayed the Dad in their commercial, but helping a family in need just put them way over the top in my books. When you do awesome things, especially in business, awesome things will come back to you. I hope creating two new life long loyal customers was enough for Canadian Tire in this instance, because they absolutely earned it!

Cheers!

Canadian Spotlight – My Favourite Commercial of All-Time

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Canadian Tire

I realize it’s a couple years old but this Canadian Tire commercial absolutely wrecks me every single time. I wish more brands would consider portraying fatherhood in this way because these guys have earned my business based solely on how powerful this commercial is.

Do you know why it’s so powerful? Because it’s real!! And real isn’t boring! I think of this commercial every time I take my kid to the outdoor rink. I think of my Dad, who spent many winters building a rink in our backyard so that we could have fun anytime we wanted. That is what real fathers do. We don’t play with our kids because they bribe us with chips (looking at you, Doritos). We do it because we love them and want them to be happy.

I want to say thank you to Canadian Tire for getting it right and I hope we will see more of this in the future. It’s easy to go for the cheap laugh but it’s far more beneficial to tell it like it is. I hope you like this one as much as I did.

A Commercial Dads Can Be Proud Of

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Please note: I am NOT recommending you go out and buy a Google Nexus 7 here. In fact, I’m not even really sure what that is and most likely will never be able to afford one.

My reason for writing today is because of this great commercial I just watched for the Nexus 7. Ever since I have joined the wonderful world of Dad Blogging, I have had the opportunity to voice my opinion on certain subjects that I would normally have kept to myself. Or bored my wife with.

One of those topics is the poor representation of fatherhood by media, hollywood and corporations. Brands like Huggies and Oscar Mayer know what I’m talking about and they have also heard the backlash from the rising Dad Blogging community.

That’s why I found it refreshing to see an ad featuring a father and son doing something that father’s and son’s do. It didn’t have any gimmicks or crazy “Dumb Dad” moments. It was simply an excellent display of a parent enjoying time with his child and having a camp out in their backyard. Have a look for yourself:

Seriously amazing. I understand that it’s not an exact portrayal of everyone’s experience with their father but it was a mirror of my upbringing and also of the way that I am trying to raise my kids. On top of all that, it has given me a great new activity to try out with my son. We’ve been waiting for my daughter to get a little older before attempting the camping thing but this looks great in the meantime.

That’s really all I wanted to share with you today. I hope other brands will start to take notice and see what at least some of us consider to be powerful and effective marketing to Fathers and Parents alike.

For the record, I’m not crazy “boycott all non-dad friendly ads” guy, I just really detest the brands that make us Dads look like imbeciles to try and sell their product. I love Moms. I have one and there’s another one raising my children. They deserve everything they get and more. It’s just nice to see a company portray Dads in a positive parenting light for a change.

I also want to say Thanks to Bryan and Zach from 8 Bit Dad for bringing this one to my attention. I like to talk Dad here but these guys are “The modern parent’s source for fatherly opinion”! (You guys can pay me via PayPal (US Funds))!

I hope you all have a great day and thank you for your continued support!!

Cheers!