Dads in Ads: the evolution

SUBARU

Subaru got an Emmy nom for this 2010 ad featuring a dad giving driving tips to his baby girl.

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HANES

A father dipped his son’s feet in paste in a harebrained scheme to make form-fitting socks in this 2009 Hanes ad.

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JOHN HANCOCK

John Hancock’s mid’-80s spot featuring a dad and his newborn daughter was one of the decade’s great tearjerkers.

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SONY CYBERSHOT

Dad was literally a horse’s ass in this over-the-top 2007 Sony spot.

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VOLKSWAGEN POLO

A new wave of sensitive-dad ads includes this misty-eyed VW number: this TV ad for the Volkswagen Polo shows the evolving relationship of a protective father and his daughter, from the moment he first brings her home from the hospital to the day she finally leaves home, when he hands her the keys to a shiny new Polo — ensuring she “stays in safe hands”. You can trust the small but tough Volkswagen Polo to protect your loved ones and keep you.

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VERIZON

Dad goes overboard with the sprinkles in this cartoony 2009 Verizon ad.

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WEETABIX

Hands-on dads are all the rage, as seen in this 2012 spot from Weetabix.

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HUGGIES

Huggies revised it’s “Dad Test” campaign this year after fathers complained that it made them look foolish

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VERIZON

Verizon took heat in 2004 for a spot in which a father fails spectaculary at helping his daughter with her homework.

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GOOGLE CHROME

Google started airing this commercial before Father’s Day of last year. The  ad, called “Dear Sophie” follows a dad over the years as he creates a digital scrapbook for his daughter with Gmail, YouTube, Picasa, Google Maps and more.

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NINTENDO/The Legend od Zelda

The man who brought you one of our favorite dads, Mrs. Doubtfire, is at it again. This time, Robin Williams is playing opposite his real-life daughter, Zelda. It’s all too fitting that this father-daughter pair would be repping this installment in the Zelda series; after all, Williams named his daughter after the legendary warrior princess.

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AT&T

2011. This spot shows what’s possible with AT&T, the only network that lets your iPhone talk and surf at the same time. We open on a new dad clumsily trying to change his baby’s diaper. His friend calls and asks if he caught the game the night before; he immediately replies ‘yeah’, though it is obvious that he missed it. Not wanting to sound out of the loop, he uses his iPhone to pull up a video recap of the game. They talk football, with the dad able to watch highlights on his phone and talk them up to his friend at the same time. He seems to forget what he’s supposed to be doing when his wife enters and flashes him a look. He quickly hangs up and attempts to focus on the task at hand. The spot closes with the line, “Only AT&T’s network lets your iPhone talk and surf at the same time.”

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BGH Air Conditioners

2012. The campaign explains that, with the arrival of the Summer heat, comes the arrival of dads wearing nothing but briefs. This commercial offers a solution to this problem. Created by Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi for BGH air conditioners.“

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ROCKSMITH UBISOFT

First, they walk. Then they talk. Evidently, the only thing left for a baby to learn is how to shred on Rocksmith. Was your dad cool enough to get you on a Fender in your onesie? Here’s a worthy addition to the pantheon of babies doing grown-up stuff in advertising—this Ubisoft video with a baby rocking out with the company’s Rocksmith videogame.

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McDONALD’S

2010. McDonald’s is launching its first television advertising campaign targeting gay men. The fast food giant’s commercial – with the slogan ‘Come as you are’ – is to be aired on television in France. It features a teenager sitting in a McDonald’s restaurant gazing at a photo of his gay lover in a class photo, then phoning to say he ‘misses him’. The youth’s father then returns to the table with a tray of burgers, and says: ‘It’s a shame you’re in an all boys college. You would have had all the girls chasing you.’ The gay son then gives a knowing smile as they tuck in to their fast food. McDonald’s said the ad was intended to show that it welcomed people from all walks of life. A YouTube version of the advert with subtitles has so far been viewed more than 220,000 times in countries including Britain and the U.S., where it has not been screened.

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L’EQUIPE

In the bathroom, a woman is teaching her son how to shave property, as a father would while he is watching L’Equipe TV.

Men like sport. And as L’Equipe is like a bible for people who are found of sport, a man can spend unknown is in his room as he doesn’t recognise his father when this one is not reading L’Equipe..