Advertising: June 2008 Archives

Father's Day has just come and gone and it's a good time to do a little introspective thinking on the subject of how fathers are portrayed in television. For years, fathers have been portrayed in various television sitcoms and commercials as bungling idiots and doofusses who can't get out of their own way. We don't need to look any farther than the 20 years of Homer Simpson humoring us to know that nothing has changed. Who can forget Tim "The Toolman" Taylor; and of more recent vintage, Alan Harper on Two and a Half Men? Fathers are easy targets and will continue to be so. That's one reason it's so sad to think about the loss of Tim Russert.

Everywhere you turn today it seems as though pessimism abounds; in everyday conversations, news, the economy or the environment. It's all about doom and gloom. Talk of the dreaded "R" word is pervasive. Some pundits are hinting about a depression. One thing is for sure, everyone seems to be in a depressed state. Recessionary times present challenges that marketers either run from or face up. Brands everywhere are attacking the problem head-on with automobile brands offering $2.99 a gallon for gasoline and family-style restaurants changing their menus and portions sizes to control costs. It's the old adage of be distinct or become extinct, only more exacerbated in recessionary economics.