In April, Procter and Gamble released a heart warming, Olympics inspired commercial. It reminded us that these strong, iconic, god-like Olympians are still someone’s sons and daughters. The advertisement — which is chock full of proud, beaming, sobbing moms — ended in with the words:
The hardest job in the world,
is the best job in the world.
Thank you, mom.
The genius of this campaign did not end there.
The company released another Olympics commercial this week and it’s just as mom-inspired. In this ad, the big, strong, hulking athletes are replaced with itty-bitty, extra adorable, look-a-likes. Proudly donning flags and apparel of the countries they hailed from (probably less than a decade ago!), the tiny athletes represent the kids our favorite Olympians used to be.
The tag line:
To their moms,
they’ll always be kids.
Already, the Twittersphere is booming with chatter about this latest Olympics campaign. Behind a hashtag, the phrase “Raising an Olympian” is trending. The comment trend seems to be that just about everyone needs a tissue after watching the commercial on Youtube.
Successful campaign? We think so, do you? And did you cry? (We won’t tell.)
Cry? No.
Get angry? Yes.
Because the underlying message here is sexist and biased. Moms don’t do this job alone, after all. There are plenty of “Olympic Dads” out there just as involved, who get up just as early, who attend all the practices.
But apparently P&G thinks that only the moms would be home to do this, carrying the implication that I guess Mom has time because she should be the one home, of course.
You cannot complain that dads are not involved enough, when at every turn they are treated as second class parents simply because they aren’t “mom.”
If these ads were aimed at “parents” I’d say thy were heartwarming. Instead they are just a reminder of how far we have to go in this country in gender relations.
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I’ll positively be coming here more often.