#1) Earlier in the week, we mentioned that Mayor Bloomberg announced a new citywide fatherhood initiative to strengthen New York families. Well, it looks like he is not the only one charging ahead with new programs for fathers. Looks like President Obama is getting in on the action as well- Krissah Thompson at The Washington Post reports: Obama steps up fatherhood advocacy with new mentoring initiative. A driver of the program is based on census figures from last reporting that a significant percentage of children in the U.S. did not live with their biological fathers. Thanks for plugging us into this Matt!
The new initiative, which is enlisting a network of organizations, will expand on a six-city listening tour the administration held last year to bring attention to the issue of fatherlessness. “The tour was a national conversation on responsible fatherhood that was rooted in the president’s personal experiences growing up and his realization that father absence is a real challenge facing many communities,” said Joshua DuBois, director of the partnerships office…
Obama’s special interest in fatherhood has been a boon for groups that support fathers and have been working for years without much attention. “His leadership and using the bully pulpit has been important,” said Roland Warren, president of the National Fatherhood Initiative, which was founded in 1994 and recently contracted with the federal government to produce public service announcements promoting fatherhood.
Not sure how large an impact this new program will have, but it marks another step in the right direction for the country in promoting the importance of fatherhood.
#2) Earlier this week, we also discussed how awesome it was for the Pampers Brand to name NFL Superstar Drew Brees as a spokesman. As a follow up, the New York Times published an article this week on Getting Dad to Do Diaper (Buying) Duty by Andrew Adam Newman.
The article is a truly great read for all dads. With quotes like, “the role of dads is expanding and we salute that and we want to make dads a bigger part of the brand,” said Bryan McCleary, a Pampers spokesman. “Dads are playing an increasingly large role in parenting and diapering.” Pampers, glad you finally had the epiphany! How about some other parenting brands becoming (slightly) more dad-centric?
The article features some words of wisdom by Greg Allen of Daddy Types stating that “In June, everybody talks to dads…but, the rest of the year it is just moms.” However, the highlight for me was the amount of real estate the article devoted to describing the four years of target practice Brian Reid has been taking on the Pampers Brand. If you are not familiar with RebelDad’s annual gripe, get acquainted with his Pampers boycott now. Hats off to Brian!
I had an email exchange with http://www.diapers.com in May to express my hope that they would have a Father’s Day promotion like they had for Mother’s Day (for both stay at home dads and working dads that earn the money to buy the diapers). The representative for http://www.diapers.com used vague language about the possibility of a promotion. I did site RebelDads issue with Pampers in my emails. No promotion in 2010, but maybe 2011?
Good point! Perhaps, if more dads wrote similar letters (hint, hint), we might make some more headway…
Thanks NYC Dads for the “shout out,” as the young people say (though my 12 y/o daughter insists they DO NOT—lol). My name is Patrick and I work for Pampers. I’m a former SAHD, but still active champion of issues near and dear to us dads. Drew Brees is a fine spokesman isn’t he? You could do worse than the Super Bowl MVP. BTW, we met the Imagination Movers (another group of hard-working dads!) last fall, and before the road manger snapped our pick, the guys said “say, Drew Brees.” Big Saints fans, they are of course being from New Orleans. Anyway, we are very interested in what daddy bloggers, and indeed all fathers, have to say. Keep up the good work. You seem to be a prolific and informative blogger.