Amazon Decides to Challenge Pampers for Tone-Deaf-to-Dads Title
Posted on 12. Sep, 2010 by rebel.
So here is the bad news: Amazon just started a new program designed to help personalize the shopping experience for parents. That’s not the bad news. The bad news is the name: “Amazon Mom.” It has all of the exclusionary, mom-focused thinking that drives me so nuts about diapers baked right into the title.
The good news is that Amazon knows that dads are out there, and they are explicit that we’re welcome:
I am a Dad (or Grandma, or Aunt) - am I eligible?
• Yes. Despite the name, Amazon Mom is open to anyone who is responsible for caring for a baby or young child-“Amazon Primary Caregiver” just didn’t have the same ring to it. Kidding aside, we chose this name because we noticed moms in social communities (like our Amazon discussion boards) looking to connect and share information about products and problems with other moms. We wanted a name that would let these groups know that this program was created with their unique needs in mind.
On second thought, maybe that level of complete tone-deafness (“We wanted a name that would let [moms] know that this program was created with their unique needs in mind.”) is bad news, too.
I would really be ranting here, except that I can’t do any better than Greg over at DaddyTypes.com, who isn’t having any of the target-market argument:
Where to even start? “Despite the name”? “created with their [sic] unique [sic] needs in mind”? If it’s “tailored to your family’s needs,” why not call it Amazon Family? Or Amazon Parent? If 85% of the customers turn out to be white, would they call it Amazon White People and just figure the other 15% will suck it up and sign on?
As they say: go read the whole thing.
I am a Dad (or Grandma, or Aunt) - am I eligible?
• Yes. Despite the name, Amazon Mom is open to anyone who is responsible for caring for a baby or young child-“Amazon Primary Caregiver” just didn’t have the same ring to it. Kidding aside, we chose this name because we noticed moms in social communities (like our Amazon discussion boards) looking to connect and share information about products and problems with other moms. We wanted a name that would let these groups know that this program was created with their unique needs in mind. Read the full FAQ.
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Dammit, Pampers. Not Again.
Posted on 10. Sep, 2010 by rebel.
So the fine folks at P&G have been keeping a low profile, not sending me much in the way of e-mail since Father’s Day, when they embraced dads for at least 24 hours via a Drew Brees-fueled media blitz.
But today, they figured they’d try again, and I received a “Gifts to Grow” e-mail that went like this:
Hello BRIAN,
We hope your summer has been filled with sun and fun. This month, you’ll find great deals for redeeming your points, a code for 5 bonus points and much more. Enjoy the rest of your summer. And be sure to tell other moms about Gifts to Grow. (ital. mine)
Now, I have been mocked for my obsession with diaper marketing (especially since it’s been a long time since I actually bought or changed diapers) and my frustration that Pampers keeps assuming I’m a woman, but — c’mon people — they keep baiting me.
| Hello BRIAN, |
 |
| We hope your summer has been filled with sun and fun. This month, you’ll find great deals for redeeming your points, a code for 5 bonus points and much more. Enjoy the rest of your summer. And be sure to tell other moms about Gifts to Grow. |
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"Baby Blues" and Dad School
Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 by rebel.
For copyright reasons, I can’t pull in the image, but it’s worth clicking over to see the charming Sunday comic from Baby Blues. Nothing I like more than the celebration of fatherhood, in all of its diaper-changing, football-tossing glory.
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Raging Hormones and Good Dads
Posted on 31. Aug, 2010 by rebel.
One of the more impressive changes I’ve seen in dad research in the time I’ve been writing about this is the science base for the ways that fatherhood changes men, biologically. The first in-depth introduction I received was Kyle Pruett’s talk at the 2005 At-Home Dad Convention. In it, he gave some details on the way various hormone levels fluctuate throughout pregnancy and infancy.My eyes were open.
Two years later, Slate did a nice piece of dad hormones, and USA Today followed up around Father’s Day with this gem.
But that’s only the start. This month brings fresh evidence of the ways that dads change over the course of childrearing: oxytocin (the so-called cuddle hormone), which has been long known to shoot up in new moms, shoots up just as much in dads. (This had been discussed before, but never published in a scientific journal.)
The research was straightforward. Eighty couples were followed for 6 months, their oxytocin levels checked a few times during that span. Levels of the hormone were similar in both men and women. What’s confusing is that we don’t really know why men release more oxytocin during this time. (It’s more clear in women, where lactation plans a part.)
What’s really interesting, though, is the conditions under which dads produce the most oxytocin. From the press release:
Finally, the findings revealed that oxytocin levels were associated with parent-specific styles of interaction. Oxytocin was higher in mothers who provided more affectionate parenting, such as more gazing at the infant, expression of positive affect, and affectionate touch. In fathers, oxytocin was increased with more stimulatory contact, encouragement of exploration, and direction of infant attention to objects.
No idea what it means, but it sure sounds like another argument in favor of the “activation parenting” theory, which holds that a crucial part of child development is parents who allow their kids some leeway to explore.
All food for thought. Any long-form journalists want to tackle this?
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Imagine Watching "Mr. Mom" In Reverse …
Posted on 25. Aug, 2010 by rebel.
… and you’d get something similar to what is apparently one of next Julie Roberts vehicles. Last month came the news that the guy behind Glee is at work on a romantic comedy that goes down like this:
In the romantic comedy, Julia will play a working woman married to a stay-at-home husband. She loses her job, their roles are reversed, and she has to adjust to motherhood.
I honestly have no idea how this works as a concept. I’ve long argued that the reason that fish-out-of-water plotlines about dads suddenly thrust into a caregiver role have gotten more and more stale since “Mr. Mom” came out in 1983 is because clueless dads are less and less plausible in an era where at-home dads are being called ho-hum part of the social fabric.
So as cool as a reverse “Mr. Mom” is on some level, I’m not sure a movie about a clueless mom is going to work all that well. In fact, it begs for a first act in which Julia is set up as a completely out-of-touch working mom, which is not a stereotype I’m a big fan of, either.
But if this moves forward, it should prompt some interesting social commentary. This will be well worth tracking.
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If You Read One At-Home Dad Piece This Year …
Posted on 24. Aug, 2010 by rebel.
… read Salon’s “The shocking new normalcy of the stay-at-home dad,” by Aaron Traister.
Traister’s thesis is pretty simple: based on his experience in a blue-collar, old-school Philly neighborhood, at-home dads don’t shock or interest much of anyone. The lead anecdote is about a charming interaction with a representative character: a wizened old woman with a nasty racist streak who nonetheless had come to celebrate the new reality of the involved father.
Everywhere Traister looks, people are nonplussed about his at-home dadness. The other dads in his circle don’t feel isolated. His right-wing Texan in-laws are big fans. He says that “Ninety percent of the men’s rooms I visit have a changing table (the other 10 percent are usually in adult bookstores).” He celebrates the Swagger Wagon commercial, the commercial where a dad eats an Oreo over a webcam with his kid and the spooky Earl Woods Nike ads are all proof that active fatherhood is hip. (All of those examples are a bit of a stretch, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on that.)
Here’s the thing: though Traister’s experiences match mine — I’ve never received the cold shoulder on the playground — I’m not sure I buy the argument. We’re not there yet. I still don’t see universal changing tables. I still meet dads who feel isolated. My new PTO has about two dozen officers and committee chairs, and only a single one is a guy (he is on the “safety committee”).
But the fact that Traister can make a compelling case for the fact that primary caretaker dads are ho-hum means that we are getting closer to gender equity. It’s good news for dads, like Traister, who are confident in what they’re doing: they’re going to be accepted almost anywhere. (One of the unexplored ideas in Traister’s story — which matches research findings by Texas’ Aaron Rochlen — is that dads who are comfortable with the at-home thing tend not to be isolated or negative about their position.)
So go read the piece. It might not reflect reality for most of us, but the fact that it’s not total fantasy is a huge step forward.
[NOTE: I should note that I'm saying these nice things despite the fact that Traister takes a good-natured dig at me and my obession, earlier this year, with diaper marketing. He may have a point.]
