I just saw this post, via a twitter I follow:
J&J is doing a promotion featuring only "Real Moms" who give advice on parenting issues. I have posted to an official blog and sent them private mail via YouTube. Please blog about and send email to them as well. My blood is boiling right now. Not awake enough to make coherant blog post right now, will tomorrow.
Cheers,
PittCaleb
Well, I don't know if I'm as upset as you. However... if you guys make some equivalent dad (parenting advice) videos, I'll feature them on the front page. Unfortunately, I'm not Johnson and Johnson, so I don't have $100 to give you.... All I can offer is fame and admiration :-)
Been doing some market research on this same issue and posted these stats. We might not be a force to be reckoned with at the moment but I think we nneed to be given real consideration.
I think companies such as J & J’s needs to reevaluate their stance on stay-at-home dads. For one they could start with a better market analysis. Consider:
Stay-at-home dads (SAHD’s)
- Of those currently unemployed, 86% are men (1)
SAHD dads comprised 2.7% of stay-at-home parents (Washington Post, June 17, 2006)
- The number of SAHD’s has tripled in the last ten years (Today / MSNBC, August 30 2007)
- The U.S. Census conducts an annual study of family arrangements, and that is how it determined there were about 140,000 stay-at-home fathers in 2008. Others estimate there are many more, perhaps about 2 million (2)
- Of the nation’s 11.3 million preschoolers whose mothers are employed, 25% are regularly cared for by their father during their mother’s working hours. This amounted to 2.9 million children
And women are more involved with careers leaving dads to take up more of the slack at home.
- Woman with an MBA earn more than 60% than their spouse (Pink Magazine, May/June 2008)
- As of November 2008, women held 49.1% of the nation’s jobs (New York Times, February 6, 2009)
- 26% of wives earned more than their husbands in 2006, an eight-digit increase from two decades ago
- According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 72% of mothers with children under 18 are in the workforce
Notes for above stats: 1) Data supplied by the United States Census Bureau and The Department of Labor and Statistics unless otherwise indicated. 2) The estimated 2 million SAHD’s was reported by CBS News in a 2008 article entitled, “Women Bringing Home The Bacon.” Data from Census Bureau indicates 21.4 million at-home fathers worked at least one week of the 52 week period, which added to the 140,000 totals around the numbers in the CBS article.
Another good article to read is, “Will 2010 Be The Year Of The Daddy Blogger?” at http://jessicaknows.com/2009/08/will-2010-be-the-year-of-the-daddy-blogger/
At least it's being talked about more.
I just responded on the Johnson & Johnson BTW board that Caleb found this on. I hope that some of the dads here that have blogs will start posting or connecting there as well. I would not care about the money if I was just decent about blogging and offering advice about what has worked for me with my twins. I also wish I was technically savy enough to understand how to do the video thing as well. Just not that apt at that sort of thing.
Johnson & Johnson rocks!
Since my initial post, I have been in e-mail communication with the lead on this YouTube project. He has been very cordial and admitted that he needed & wanted Dad's input. He considered making a "Real Dads" promotion, but I believe is in the (legal) process of creating a join project along the lines of "Real Parents"
As well, I submitted 2 videos to him so he had some dad material to start with, I encourage you all to do so as well. production quality on the existing videos isn't AWESOME, so don't feel threatened.
I just got word that not only are they changing the promotion, but they are also sponsoring the upcoming At Home Dad's Convention in Omaha! I don't think I'm at liberty to discuss specifics, but they have signed on as a corporate sponsor.
I believe we have been heard and I applaud J&J for realizing their gender sterotyping and quickly correcting it. I look forward to the day when all advertisers realize that we Dads are an important demographic and vital to the upbringing of our children and thus should not be specifically excluded from advertising campaigns or dimished/demeaned in the process.
Cheers,
PittCaleb
Thanks Caleb, JJ, Robb, Mike ..... for speaking up.
The issue of ignoring dads and not giving them equal billing as parents has been around way before I became a dad in 1988 and a fatherhood advocate in 1992 when I co-founded the Father's Network of Orange County. I've yet to see any corporation or parenting organization, program or project put their money where their mouth is when it comes to servicing and supporting dads in the same way they do moms. I will try to remain optimistic and hope that a major change will arrive soon and hopefully in my lifetime. But I'm not going to hold my breath.
Too tired to be angry anymore.
Great that you won the situation of convincing Johnson & Johnson to start a “read Dad’s” promotion aw well!! Considering that we have so many stay-at-home-das these days, it great that they have realized the role that we dads play in looking after our kids!! I am really looking forward to hearing all about the “dads’” experiences and I am sure there’ll be more posts from us dads, than the moms!! This is going to be fun for sure!!
Joined: 2007-10-08
Dad Points: 113