RebelDad

Posted on 24. Oct, 2005 by Brian Reid in General

Parenting sells itself as the magazine that “gets moms.” But lets be clear: if you want to subscribe to Parenting, you are more than welcome to do so. That’s a statement of the obvious, right? Not necessarily.

The folks at Procter & Gamble, the makers of Frebeze fabric freshener, are clearly targeting moms with their Cool House sweepstakes. They talk about “mominating” a “cool mom” who has “the best snacks” and the “friendliest family.” I assumed all the talk about moms, etc. is just offensive single-sex marketing, kind of the like the whole “Mama’s got the magic” Clorox ad or selling Nissan minivans by claiming “moms have changed.”

Then I read the sweepstakes’ fine print:

No purchase necessary. Nominators must be legal residents of the 50 U.S. or DC, 16 or older at time of entry. Nominees must be mothers/female legal guardians, residents of the 50 U.S. or DC, 21 or older at the time they are nominated. Void where prohibited. For Official Rules/entry details, visit www.coolhouse.com starting 12:01 a.m. (ET) on 8/22/05 through 11:59 p.m. (ET) on 10/31/05.

Nominees must be mothers/female legal guardians… What!?

I plan to call the public relations people at P&G to see why they thought it necessary to exclude half of the parents in the country in their contest, and I’ll let you know if I hear back. We dads have to put up with a world that generally ignores male caregivers, but it’s rare that we encounter a situation where there’s an actual “moms only” sign. So I’m through with Febreze. Lots of traffic on the dads-at-home Yahoo! group on this one.

Worthwhile reading: a first-person account of the transfer to at-home dadhood was published in the New York Daily News yesterday. Good blow-by-blow and worth checking out.