We are in the midst of a daddy ad war with Verizon sticking to their stupid dad ads in one corner, and Ford taking a realistic view in another . You may have remembered the ad aired shot 3 years ago by Verizon when they showed a confused looking dad helping his daughter do homework when his wife marches in and tell him to "leave her alone".  I had written how this commercial that had been airing for months with no complaints suddenly got the boycott treatment by Glenn Sacks, the host of his radio show His Side. AP's David Crary did a piece on it giving it  wide coverage.  Verizon finally caved in to the one-article week long media assault and pulled the ad.  Since then Verizon and Ford have been back and forth in an on-air daddy war. 

In the Spring of 06, Ford started their "bold moves campaign" where their research by JWT Detroit by showed  a reassessment of what people think of us today. What are our weaknesses? What are our strengths? Our research confirmed for us what we knew in our hearts. Ford's strength and identity are defined by three words: bold - American - and innovative.  Out of JWT's research comes this controversial spot shown below with dad spending a nice day at the beach with the wife & kids. Turns out we find out that the couple is divorced when she drops him off at his place the end of the day. He hugs his kids and mutters to his ex, thanks for inviting me this weekend, and is left alone until he sees his kids the next weekend.

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Verizon came back in May of 06 with this this funny, but easily mis-interpreted "Daddy got Hosed" ad shown below. The play of words may not be as obvious as the Meet The Fockers Movie, but I'm sure the ad agency knows we might have done a double take upon the first viewing. Judge for yourself.

 

Ford, continuing with their "Bold" campaign actually gets it right with a dad actually caring for his from toddler to driver's license age. nicely done.

OK Verizon, Ford has one up on you,  you're next... lets see if you can show a little class too.