Father2I have noticed an interesting trend recently. In years past, fathers were the constant butt of jokes on television.

Dads are often represented on TV and movies as bumbling, inept fools, who must be rescued from themselves by their obviously superior children and wives. There are still a number of companies who choose to portray fathers in this light through their corporate advertising. Here are a couple of recent examples:

Esurance introduces us to “Hank, the Out of Touch Dad”

Tide celebrates the gender-role confused, “Dad Mom”:

However, this year, I’ve noticed that many companies have been taking a different tact. They are presenting fathers as masculine, engaged, intelligent and important. Here are some examples:

Dove Soap asks, “Isn’t it Time We Celebrate Dads?”

Hyundai asks, “Remember When Only Dad Could Save the Day?”

Perhaps my favorite is this one, that almost makes me want to go buy Peanut Butter Cheerios! It reflects a dad who is confident, masculine, not a buffoon, and the camera work is great too.

Bridging the gap between the inept father, and the important one, is this heart-warming international commercial by dtac:

And just for Dad fun, here’s a bonus from McDonalds that is just kind of clever:

And one from Suburu Legacy:

It’s my hope that art is reflecting life here. I would like to think that corporations are realizing what others in our nation are also coming to understand: Fathers are vital to our society. We need to stop mocking fatherhood and start encouraging dads!

Israel Wayne is an Author and Conference Speaker and the Director of Family Renewal, LLC. He is also the Site Editor for www.ChristianWorldview.net.

Photo credit: Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)