The notion of gender is in an “astounding period of flux” according to Getty Images director of visual trends Pam Grossman, and the concept of 'dad' is no different. However, Pam Grossman believes “the bumbling jester dad has become passé”, but she still believes Australian advertising has a way to catch up.
Grossman told AdNews that while changes in economic and family structures across the developed world have been gradually shifting, changes in the way brands represent fatherhood has reached a tipping point more rapidly.
She pointed to this year's Superbowl commercials which included several adverts where the image of men was valuing tenderness over toughness, including Dove Men+Care's “Real Strength” campaign which gathered a huge amount of attention at the time and led to the coining of the word “dad-vertising”.
“Dad is more present than ever before,” Grossman said. “We’re now seeing fathers as the stars of commercials for products that had been previously sequestered to the female realm. The bumbling jester dad has become passé.”
Grossman said while socio-economic changes, with more women working than ever before has been one reason, why the traditional 'masculine' dad image is no longer as relevant, she also pointed to a more fluid concept of gender entering the conversation.
She said that “our notions of gender in general is going through an astounding period of flux” with binary norms of masculine and feminine being called into question and rejected regularly.
Grossman also said the rise of “femvertising” in media is part of the change.
“They're two sides of the same coin,” Grossman said. “They're both about moving past gender cliches and building a more fluid egalitarian world.
“It depends on the generation and the region we're talking about but overall this is a point of view that is more widely adopted in society, especially as Gen X and millennials are starting families.”
At Getty, Grossman said this changing world view has come through in its global searches, with image searches for “dad changing diaper” up seven times globally over the last three years. Image searches of “modern dad” and “stay at home dad” are up globally 450% over the last three years, while searches of fathers as caregivers has increased by 25% in Australia over the last five years.
However, despite the rise, Grossman said that Australia has been slower on the uptake.
“I think the move away from the stereotypically dad from past is happening more slowly in Australian advertising,” Gorssman said.
“You can look at the Bundaberg Ginger Beer advertisement released just this Fathers’ Day add video that is all about reminiscing the old school dad. But there is a lot of change happening, hopefully we’ll see more.”
Getty released a new collection of images called “LeanInTogther” - inspired by its “LeanIn” series which aimed to show women as more progressive – in March this year. The new collection expands this aim into more modern images of fathers and was then further amplified and built out in tandem with Father's Day in the US, in June.
“The modern Australian dad is more involved than ever before,” Grossman said. “Today’s father needs to be shown as being engaged and involved. And importantly fully competent.
“The media has tremendous influence. It’s the primary way, including social media, that images are disseminated throughout the world. So the more forward-looking and evolutionary the images are in media, the more likely people’s perceptions will change, and the more likely they are to then enact that change in their actual lives.”
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